


Batfam Ficlets

by Emmyb102



Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Fae, Alternate Universes (mentioned), Alternate Universes Perhaps Based On Other FanFics? Maybe, BAMF Tim Drake, Bad Parents Jack and Janet Drake, Bruce Wayne is a Good Parent, Child Neglect, Contains Jason Todd Level Cursing, Depressed Tim Drake, Fae Tim Drake, Future!Tim, Gen, I Play Fast And Loose With Cannon, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Jason Todd is Red Robin, Jason never died, Kid Dick Grayson, Kid Tim Drake, Meta Tim Drake, Morally Ambiguous Tim Drake, Mostly Tim Drake-Centric, Not Canon Compliant, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pru Breaks Someone ELSE's Nose For Once, Self Confidence Issues, Self-Esteem Issues, Sleep Deprivation, Stephanie Brown is Robin, Stray!Tim, Strip Poker, Suicide Attempt, Tim Drake Has Issues, Tim Drake has powers, Tim Drake is Catlad | Stray, Tim Drake is Not Red Robin, Tim Drake is Not Robin, Tim Drake-centric, Time Travel, dark!Tim, joker dies
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-18
Updated: 2020-11-20
Packaged: 2020-12-21 12:42:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 29,516
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21075071
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emmyb102/pseuds/Emmyb102
Summary: Random story fics that aren't long enough to be a story by itself





	1. Strip Poker

Damian, Bruce and Dick walk in on a strip poker game between Steph, Cass, Tim and Jason. Cass is the only one with all her clothes on still. Tim has the least and is passed out at the table with only a sock and his boxers. Steph is in her bra, underwear and has both her socks, Jason has one sock, his pants and underwear.

As soon as they walk in, Dick covers Damian's eyes with a hand before covering his own, Bruce just sighs and walks away. "Guys! This is not appropriate for Dami to see! Put your clothes back on!"

"It's nothin' the Demon hasn't seen before, Goldie."

"Yeah, besides, Cass still has her clothes on so we can't stop yet!"

"Why couldn't this have been done in one of your rooms?"

"We weren't expecting you back so soon," Jason shrugged.

"How'd you rope poor Timmy into this?"

The three at the table shared a look before Jason smirked, "it was actually replacement's idea."

Dick stared wide-eyed at the passed out boy, "how out of it was he?"

"Probably pretty out of it. He kept calling Jason 'Stabby McStabberson' and Cass 'Badass Perfection'."

"Don't forget what he called you, 'girlfriend who hated me so much she faked her death' or 'exie who faked her deathy'," Jason smirked, "he's honestly pretty funny without a brain-to-mouth filter."

"I can't believe he's still hung up on that! I thought we got over that already!"

Tim mumbled something into the wood of the table that caused Jason to bust out laughing, "couldn't agree more, Timbers."

A little happy sound came from him before he passed out again. 

"So you gonna leave us to play or join in," Steph asked as Cass dealt out the cards.

Dick looked between the table and Damian before dragging the boy out of the room. 

"Deal him in next round," Jason smirked at them, dropping his feet from the chair across from him.

Not a minute later, just after she dealt out the next set of cards, Dick was back, sliding into the seat Jason had just given up with a large smile.

They played well into the night before passing out, Cass missing her shirt, Dick in just a sock, Steph in just her panties, and Jason fully naked. Needless to say that since some of the losers had yet to wake up by breakfast, eating in the same room as passed out naked vigilantes made the situation a little awkward.


	2. Fae!Tim

Timothy Drake was...odd. Most wouldn't notice anything amiss with the boy, but then again, Bruce Wayne wasn't like most. So he cataloged the forever small stature, the slim build that never seemed to show just how strong the boy really was. The sharp features of his face, angled eyes, fair skin, and silky black, darker than night, hair. The almost luminescent shine to his otherwise eerily pale eyes in the night. The way his skin was always cold no matter how hot it was around him. The way he could be both awkward and graceful at the same time. The way he never made a noise unless he wanted to. The way he seemed to legitimately fly at night. The odd mannerisms and precise wordings. The calculative gaze he always had. The way he never _really_ lied, always expertly avoiding answering or only telling half truths. The way none of his things had iron and how he would almost always have gloves on when touching anything metal at all. The way he would stare off into the shadows and cock his head as if listening. The way that sometimes, in the right lighting and angle, out of the corner of his eye, he could see features much more prominent than normal, glowing skin, a flash of fangs, slightly pointed ears, nails that resembled claws, but they were gone so fast that he could and would normally put it off as a trick of the light.

Yes, Bruce saw a lot, but he never saw Tim outright shy away from iron, refusing to touch or even be near it. At least, not until almost six years into his run as Red Robin.

As always, it happened because of Ra's al Ghul.

In the Batcave, Nightwing stared at the batcomputer, screens lit up informing them of an incoming call from Titans Tower. "Computer, accept call," Batman ordered from behind the frozen in panic Nightwing.

"Thank the goddess!" Cassie said as soon as it connected, her worried face appearing on the screens next to Bart and Kon's. "Tim's gone! Ra's has him!"

"Do you know where?" Batman demanded as he gently pushed Nightwing out of the way.

"No, we found his trackers, but there's no sign of him anywhere near."

Batman gave a noncommittal grunt, about to end the call when Nightwing stepped back in, "thank you, we'll find him."

The three on screen exchanged a glance, like they would rather be helping than waiting for the Bats to find their teammate, but nodded, "please keep us updated."

Nightwing nodded back and ended the call. Turning to Bruce, he asked, "any ideas?"

"TT," Damian melted out of the shadows by the stairs, "if it was Grandfather who took Drake, it should be rather easy to find him, no?"

Bruce gave a grunt that could have meant anything from 'you're right' to 'let's get pizza'.

"He wouldn't be at Nanda Parbat, if that's what you're thinking, Demon." Jason came stomping down the stairs, "Ra's wouldn't put Replacement somewhere as precious to him as his city."

Dick nodded, "he also wouldn't put him somewhere as easily escapeable as one of his hole in the wall bases."

"Which leaves us with his 'secret' base in the arctic." Damian brings it to a close, a sneer in his voice that the other two recognized as his own brand of 'duh'.

They turn to where Bruce used to be and then continue turning to where Batman now stood by the Batplane like he was just waiting on them. With a sigh and groan from Nightwing and Red Hood, the three followed him into the plane, coordinates set and ready to go.

"Why the fuck do I have to come with you to save the Replacement? I don't even like the kid!"

"Nobody likes Drake, Todd."

"Now now, you two," Dick breaks into their little bemoaning session, "he'd do the same for you and has on several occasions. Suck it up and hurry up."

The flight there is silent as Dick hacks into what little surveillance he can, which isn't much because their cameras are all CCTV. Batman lays out a plan during the last five minutes before they land, Jason and Damian both upset about having a minder.

Thirty minutes later, Nightwing and Hood are the first to find Tim. He's in a stone cell, completely naked, whispering to the shadows. The shadows that Hood can see_ moving, what the _fuck_, Replacement?_

"-will burn you. Don't try it." Tim whispers harshly and the shadows move toward him, curling around his ankle and tug. "No. Now please be quite, I can't hear myself think." The shadows release his foot and shrink back into the opposite corner before disappearing.

Nightwing shares a look with Hood silently asking if he saw that too, Hood nods before grabbing the key and walking the last little bit to the iron bars of the door locking him in. Tim perks up when he hears the steps Hood makes so he doesn't startle the boy.

"Alright, Tim, 'm not even gonna ask why you haven't gotten yourself out yet. Let's go."

"Call for B," Tim tells him, voice hoarse.

"He's got his own stuff he's dealing with, primarily the asshole who brought you here." Hood tells him as Nightwing steps around him, coming into the little cell.

"You hurt, Baby Bird?"

Tim presses himself against the wall, hissing, "stay back. Get B."

Dick jumps back a little when shadows are suddenly _right there_, and Jason pulls him back out of the room. "What's going on Replacement? What are those?"

Tim holds out his hand soothingly to the mass of raging shadows who curl around it, "it's alright, guys. You know them, they won't hurt me. Would you bring B down here?" The shadows seem to nod before disappearing and Tim brings his bright blue eyes back up to them, biting his lip. "You wouldn't believe me, and even if you did, you'd hate me."

There was tense silence before Batman comes rushing to the door, Robin behind him, his eyes taking in everything. "Did either of you touch him?"

They shake their heads, "I tried to, but he told me to stay back."

"Tim," Bruce calls softly, waiting for Tim to meet his eyes, "is it the iron?"

Tim gives a soft nod, and Bruce nods back, "is it proximity or does it have to be touching?"

"Both. It burns if I touch it."

"Okay. We can work with that." He detaches his cape and tosses it to Tim, "wrap that around you, Nightwing will carry you out." As Tim does as he's told, Bruce turns to Dick and strips him of anything metal just to be on the safe side. "Don't let him touch anything."

Confused, Dick nods and walks in to pick up the wrapped bundle of Tim, those shadows clinging to him.

"The _fuck_, Bats? What is this about iron?"

"_Oh_. He's a _Fae_." Robin breaths, snapping both Dick and Jason's attentions to him.

"Fae? The fuck is Fae? Like fairy? He's got no wings. Or pointy ears." Jason rambles as Dick watches Tim curl in on himself and the shadows wrap tighter around him.

"Let's talk about this back home," Dick interrupts just as Batman says, "later."

The flight back to Gotham is tense, near silent as Tim is wrapped in B's cape and shadows and Dick's arms, in the exact middle of the plane, as far from the walls and metal as they can get. Jason is glaring daggers at B while B studiously ignores him, both his and Damian's eyes on Tim, one in calculation, one in wonder.

Once they touch down in the cave and Dick is carrying him to one of the few walls with nothing near it, Tim whispers, "tell my team. Need my ring."

A shadow splits from the mass of them wriggling around Tim and disappears, as Dick asks, "what ring?"

"Nightwing," Bruce calls, waving him over, "change out of your suit before anything."

Alfred, the absolute _godsend _his is, has already laid out clothes for the lot of them, and brings Tim his own stack. As they get dressed again, they get an incoming call from Titan's Tower.

"Computer, accept call," Tim calls out, pulling himself more into the shadows.

"Tim! Kon's on his way with your ring, okay? Are you hurt?" Cassie says immediately, Bart bouncing with nerves behind her.

"I'm fine, just weak."

"Where are the others?"

"Changing. Too much iron in their suits."

"Crash, dude. So they know?"

"They've guessed. Got to answer questions now," Tim sighs, his shadow returning to him from it's trip to San Fran.

"Well, you know where we stand."

"Thank you." The call cuts out just before B and Dick come back out in gym clothes, Damian a few seconds behind, and Jason almost a minute later. They come to a stop a few feet from him, Dick sitting down near him with a small smile, "first things first. Are you hurt?"

"I'm fine."

"Good. What the _shit_, Replacement? I don't even know where to start!"

"Why don't you tell us what happened first?" Dick suggests, placing a hand on Jason's shin to calm him down.

Tim gives a smooth shrug, a shadow rising up to rub against his jaw, "Titans were called in for a mission, I got sidetracked during the fight to disable a bomb. Ra's' ninja tried to sneak up on me, we fought, I got hit then knocked out. By the time I came to I was in that cell and my ring and clothes were gone."

"You're more worried about your ring then your suit?"

"Yes, Dick. Wouldn't you be protective of the only thing you received from your mother?" At the mention of his mother the shadows flickered, flattening themselves against the cave wall with a hiss they could all hear, Tim merely pet them till they settled.

"It's what protected you from the iron this whole time."

"There's no protection against iron, B. It just made the pain bearable and didn't leave marks or sap energy."

"So you _are_ Fae," Damian whispered.

"I'm not full blooded, so it's weak, but yes." Tim admits quietly, shadows wrapping around him like a blanket.

"What percentage and what court?"

"Does it really matter, Bruce? Don't they say all Fae are evil?"

"I would like to know to better understand your natural limits."

Tim sighs, "my mother's mother was from the Winter Court."

"Okay, but what the fuck are those shadows?"

"Shadowlings. They're a type of creature from Faerie that's more magic and shadow than the rest of us. The old stories say they hide in the shadows and whisper pretty words and twisted promises to the young to lure them into the forests for the other Fae to take." Tim smiles shyly as they rub against him like a cat, "of course, those are just stories. Old, _old_ stories. Some of these are ones that I've collected from all of you, mostly Jason. Their whispers lead people to do bad things normally. But they don't affect most Dark Fae."

"Or those Fae's trusted ones," Kon adds as he floats over to them, holding out a black ring the assembled Bats had never seen before. Tim puts it on quickly and it fades to his skin tone, the shadows all loosen up around him, streaking off towards other shadows, a few winding their way around Kon instead. Now that they weren't so tightly bunched around Tim, Damian and Jason could make out faint flashes of colored light in each of them.

"Do the colors mean anything?"

Tim's eyebrows shot up in surprise at Jason's question, "you can see them?" Damian and Jason both nod, "of course you can see them. You saw their siblings when you died, it would make sense that you'd be able to see them as excited as they are," Tim mumbled to himself, calming the shadows with a smile. "Generally the color signifies who they're claimed by, but since they aren't claimed, the color signifies the last person they were attached to. The reds are Damian's, Dick's are sky blue, Steph's are purple, B's are gray, the brown one is from Cass, and the pit greens are Jason's."

"What about the other colors?"

"Others. Some are from heroes, some from baddies, some from civilians." Tim shrugs and most of the shadows have faded away again, leaving with a brush against him.

"Why didn't you tell us?"

Kon is still floating protectively nearby, watching closely as Tim shrugs in answer to Dick, "B doesn't like metas or aliens in Gotham, why would he want a Fae working with him?"

"You're different, Timmy."

"Am I really, Dick? B didn't even want another Robin at that time, I practically black-mailed him into letting me be his partner." Bruce flinches minutely and Tim just shakes his head, "perhaps that's changed, or perhaps it hasn't. Doesn't really matter, who'd trust a Dark Fae?"

"You're only one-quarter."

"Ouch." Kon deadpanned, "probably not the best thing to say honestly. Would have been better to say blood doesn't determine good or bad."

"It's fine, Kon. I know what Dick meant." Tim sighed, "are you giving me a lift?"

"If you want."

"Wait! You can't leave yet. I got questions," Jason said, crossing his arms.

"And what would those be?"

"First, do you have any of Joker's shadow things?"

"Shadow_lings. _And no. Joker's are too attached to him. They claim they can't be temped away by a halfling, much less Fae as _diluted_ as me."

"Good. Is this your natural appearance?"

"What do you think?"

Jason gives a sharp smirk that Tim returns, "I think it's close, but you're obscuring parts that would mark you as obviously Fae."

"That would be smart."

"Will you ever show us?"

"How do you know you haven't already seen it?"

"You walk around in your Fae form a lot?"

"You walk around without your clothes on a lot. What's the difference?"

Jason snorts but stops questioning him, so Damian takes it up, "does that mean you have magic or did you have someone else put a glamour on you?"

Tim smirks as does Kon, "yes."

"Yes to what, Drake?"

"Your question, Damian."

Jason and Dick are smiling now too at the irritated look on Damian's face. "If you don't want to answer, just say so, I have no patience for childish games like this."

"Don't take it too hard, Robin, it's a habit for him. Does it to everyone," Kon tells them.

"What's your true name?" Bruce asks, making Tim snap his mouth shut so fast the click of teeth were audible as he, Kon, and Damian tense up.

"Father," Damian warns as all three turn to glare at him with suspicion. Jason and Dick were confused, but mirrored the others.

"Now, Master Bruce," Alfred interfered before anything could happen, making most jump at the reminder that he was there still. "That was a rather rude thing to ask, don't you think?"

Bruce seems to rethink his word choice and timing, giving a slight wince that would go unnoticed by most people. "Yes, of course, Alfred. I'll rephrase that. Does anyone know your true name?"

Biting his lip, Tim admits slowly, "I can understand why you would ask that, given what one could do with that information. But my mother was nowhere near stupid enough to place my true name on my birth certificate. There's no need to worry about others knowing or using it. I've already made contingencies for it, but you're welcome to make your own."

"That's good to know." Bruce sighed softly, "I suppose the Titans already know of all this?"

"It would be hard to hide it from them, with how close we are." Tim gives a small smile as Kon snorts.

"Wait, what's so important about your 'true' name?"

"TT. Names have power, Grayson. A Fae's true name can be used to control them."

"Seriously?"

"To be fair, anyone's true name can be used to control them. A Fae's is just..." Tim gives a full bodied shudder as he remembers some of the things he saw in Faerie the few times his mother took him and the one time he went alone.

Jason seems a little doubtful so Tim offers to show him and when he nods hesitantly, Tim gives a sharp smirk, layering power and command in his voice, "Jason Peter Todd, I command you to hit yourself with your shoe."

The effect is instantaneous, Jason gets a blank look over his face and moves quickly to complete his orders. His look only clears after the loud slap of his shoe hitting his face echos through the cave. "What the fuck? I...I couldn't even stop myself? Tha-I..."

"Yeah, I know. Fae experience compulsions much stronger than that," a dark look passes over Tim's face, but leaves quickly. "Humans don't actually have true names in the same sense Fae do, so the effects are greatly weakened."

"You've had someone use your name?"

"It doesn't much matter now. She can't use it anymore."

There was a slight lull, where the Bats shared a silent conversation before Dick prodded carefully, "I'm almost afraid to ask, but what was your mother like?"

Tim refused to flinch, even as the few remaining shadows hissed dangerously, "do you see the relevance, Kon?"

Kon didn't even blink, "no. They didn't care before, why would they now?"

"Exactly my thoughts."

"Just tell them the next time you're coming to visit and lets go home, Red. I can hear Cassie and Bart worrying from here."

"Yes, yes. I'll be back Wednesday for a WE meeting. I'll drop by after that for patrol." Tim tells them, letting Kon pick him up as he waves and then they're out of there.

"What. The. Fuck." Jason broke the silence that fell over them after Tim and Kon had left minutes ago.

"Language, Master Jason."

"Can someone explain what just happened, I think I was still processing the fact that Replacement isn't human."

"Yeah, I'd like some clarification too, B."

When there seemed to be no response to Jason and Dick, Alfred stepped in again, "I believe we should take this discussion upstairs. I will prepare drinks for everyone."

They head to the kitchen, settling into the breakfast nook as Alfred dishes out drinks and little finger snacks and Bruce starts haltingly. "I have long suspected that Tim was not..._normal_. There were many times I thought I saw abnormal things, but they never showed up on camera, so I put it aside. I'm sure you all noticed something a little different with him at some point or another, be it his wording, his knowledge, his grace, or what have you. I had always thought Janet and Jack Drake were...not good parents, but I was unaware of how bad she was until Tim came to live here. Whatever she made him do under the guise of 'training and teaching' him still gives him nightmares."

The others had their eyes on him in rapt attention, "it is to my knowledge that the Dark Court, which includes Fall, Winter, and Unseelie, is more outwardly sadistic in nature than the Light Court Fae. The old stories were almost never positive in regards to any Fae, but even less so to the Dark Courts. Many stories tell of...practices that earned them the reputation of 'Dark' to both humans and Fae. They are said to rarely concern themselves with humans and when they do it is usually torturous and fatal."

"I can only assume that what his mother 'taught' him was similar." Bruce gave a heavy sigh, "Winter Fae in particular are said to pass down a ideology that would support child abuse and distancing. They only want strong and independent gentry. They value manipulation and enjoy working around their inability to lie by twisting meanings to their benefit. They specialize in charm or influence magic and glamor. Those Shadowlings are most often claimed by them, but many Dark and even some Light Fae are not swayed by their magic. A Fae's true name can be used to bind them to servitude or merely give them orders they must obey. Even with a Fae's quick thinking and cunning word play, they are unable to escape the orders of the controller in most cases."

Everyone could see how exhausted Bruce looked just thinking about it, but Jason wasn't finished with him. "You said you saw _abnormal_ things. What things?"

"Like when he was looking at something we couldn't see or listening to something we couldn't hear? I always thought he was just thinking, lost in his head," Dick pondered.

"This would explain his appearance some days, though." Damian added hesitantly, "some nights, he seemed to glow in the moonlight. And sometimes when he smiled, there were fangs."

"Master Timothy has, on one or two occasions, had burn marks that were inconsistent with the injuries he should have received."

They fall silent, absorbing and readjusting information and previous assumptions until Alfred nods and wonders off, followed soon after by Damian, then Dick, then Jason, and lastly, Bruce.

Just before Dick fell asleep, he had the sudden feeling he was missing something. "oh..." Raising his voice so he could be heard by the other boys, "I call not telling the girls!"

"I won't be doing something as menial as that!" Damian's voice was the first to return, followed quickly by Jason's "not it!" Then his louder, more vehement, "FUCK!" A pause, and murmured, "sorry Alf."

By the time Tim returned on Wednesday, the boys had completely forgotten to tell the girls, which was _not_ okay at _all_, Barbara insisted when she found out that night from the banter over the comms. 

Cass had, not surprisingly, already known or at least had an idea of it, much like Bruce.

Steph, as it turned out, didn't truly seem shocked, but she went through the motions of it until Tim told her it was fine and she admitted that she had already known. Not only had Cass shared her intuition and suspicions, but Tim had also hinted at it while they were dating. 

Babs seemed to be the only girl shocked by it, and even then, it was only because they had found out, she had more than enough video evidence she had erased that showed what Tim was. And now that it was common knowledge, she shared what few good quality videos and pictures she had of his true form with the others, with Tim's permission of course.


	3. In Which Tim Sees His Potential Future

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Future!Tim visits the Batfam!

They're in the cave, going about their business after patrol, Bruce and Tim on computers, Dick stretching and expending his excess energy in the form of sparring with Damian as the night had been slow, Steph and Cass were upstairs already, getting ready for bed, Jason was at his safe house of the night, and Alfred was somewhere. Dick was just winding down when alarms went off, locking down the cave as the computer informed them of an intruder, they got in position to fight, looking around for said intruder, but no one was there.

Damian had barely let out his customary tsk, already opening his mouth to no doubt berate Tim for the computer's failure when a sudden flash of light appeared a good ten feet above Tim's cluttered work table. A black figure tumbled out, landing half on half off the table and knocking many of it's contents across the floor. Before the Bats could react, the figure was up and in a fighting stance that reminded Tim almost immediately of a slimmer, younger Bruce, helped by the fact that the figure was wearing a costume similar to Batman's. It was obvious that this was not Bruce in any way shape or form when Tim caught sight of guns holstered on his waist before they were covered by the cape fully encircling him, making him look far more imposing than even Bruce could.

Everyone tensed even more, readying for a fight as the intruder's cowled face turned to take them all in before stopping on Tim. "Aw, fuck."

And that caught everyone off guard, Dick actually gaping at the intruder, "Tim?"

Bruce was rigid beside Tim, expression closed off, Damian had disgust and anger clear on his face, sneering at the man as he let out another rough, "fuck."

"Tim, why are you Batman?"

The batglare sent Dick's way was enough to make him flinch when even Bruce's can't anymore, "you know I can't answer that, Dick."

Tim swallowed, "we don't even know if he's really me anyway. He could be from a different universe or an alternate reality."

"Red makes a good point," the Batman Tim says after a second, "what Earth is this?"

Dick opened his mouth but Tim cut him off, "what Earth are you from?"

There was a twitch of Batman Tim's lips, like he almost wanted to smile at his counterpart's caution, "Earth 48. And before you try to interrogate me on anything, Red, I'd suggest getting the others out."

"Why?"

Bruce could feel the Batman Tim's gaze on him through the cowl and almost shivered at the intensity in it, "because you are all far too easy to read." He returned his gaze to Tim, ignoring when Bruce audibly inhaled, "you should know better than to let anybody else around any counterpart of yours. You probably don't want them to hear what I say anyway."

"You try telling Batman to get out of his own cave. I'm not Alfred here, I can't make miracles like that happen," Tim returns dryly, refusing to look at the others who are watching the interaction attentively. "What was the name of the code I implanted in Ra's' mainframe?"

"You get amnesia in a few years so I'm still missing a few months here and there."

"Then tell me something only I would know."

"You named your cat Robin before Jack killed it," Batman Tim said, shifting the slightest bit in discomfort. "Janet told you off when he threw it away."

Tim narrowed his eyes, giving his counterpart a glare as he took in all the little things he was giving off before nodding, "well, welcome to the past."

"You're what? Almost twenty now?" The Batman Tim asks, actively ignoring the others, "quit while you can. A few more years and it'll be so much worse."

"I'll take that into consideration. How old are you?"

"Thirty-five. Incredible, right?"

The agreement was apparent on Tim's face even as he ignored the question, "how'd you get here?"

"One of the people I was fighting shot me with a prototype deaging gun they were trying to steal. Guess it didn't work right," he shrugged, like this happened regularly.

"Should we be expecting anyone else to show up?"

There was a long pause, like he was trying determine how much to say, "not unless they're dumb enough to shoot themselves."

"You don't have a Robin?"

Tim shifted as his counterpart answered Dick, "I'm not going to pull children into this mess. You gonna help me find a way back or not?"

"No one from your time's going to be looking for you yet?"

Another long pause where he debates what he can and can't say, "it's faster for us to do it now." A slight pause, "I can't be sure anyone would notice before the end of the week."

Tim gives him another long look, eyes seeming to communicate something only the other could understand, flicking down to where his waist should be, the other nodded and Tim returned it, "yeah. Come here and lets get this done." He plops himself down in his chair at the computer, gesturing to the chair Bruce was in just ten minutes before.

Batman Tim moves like water to the offered chair, "my suit took readings of the gun before I was transported here. I'm assuming the cave took readings of my arrival?"

"Yeah, hook it up and we'll compare them." 

It seemed like they were only talking for the other Bats' benefits because they were so in sync with one another that talking didn't seem to be needed at all, motions already completed by the time the words came out of their mouths.

Damian gives a tsk and walks away, muttering about useless Drakes and their inability to not mess things up.

Batman Tim side-eyes Damian with cold fury, not directed at this Damian so much as the one in his time.

Tim gives him a glance before returning his eyes to the screen where he was reading and comparing the energy fluctuations between the readings from cave and Batman Tim's Batsuit. "Dick, would you call Alfred down here? Maybe ask him for a hot chocolate for other me."

Dick gives a nod like he's not really fully present and leaves the cave as well.

"Bruce-"

"No. I'm not leaving you here alone with him."

"I was _going _to ask if we had any clothes for him to change into."

"I'm not changing." Batman Tim interrupted before Bruce could reply, meeting Tim's look head on as they held yet another silent conversation. 

They were glaring at each other for close to three minutes before Batman Tim gave a snarl but conceded, standing abruptly and marching over to the changing area as Tim called after him, "take a shower while you're at it! Alfred doesn't need your stench when he comes down to stitch you up!"

Batman Tim grumbled, muttering about 'if this is how I act, I can't blame the others.'

Bruce turned to Tim, watching him for quite a few minutes longer than necessary, "you trust him?"

"He's me," Tim answered like it was obvious, not even looking up from the screen, "of course I don't trust him."

An oh so eloquent grunt followed and then Dick was coming back down the stairs, Alfred behind him. "Where'd he go?"

"He's taking a shower, then he's going to have Alfred take care of his injuries."

"If he's anything like you, Master Tim, it would be a wonder and a half to get him to agree."

"I think that's what I've missed most about you Alfred, your dry wit." Batman Tim's voice trailed from the changing area teasingly.

"A manor without Alf," Dick shudders, watching the man walk out in some of Dick's clean gym clothes, "how'd you live?"

Older Tim's uncowled face darkens before being wiped clean, zeroing in on the butler, and giving him a firm hug, "it's good to see you again."

"It's nice to see how well Master Tim grows up," Alfred returns the hug kindly. "Now lets see about your injuries."

Older Tim follows him to the medbay, chatting amicably with the old man on the way, allowing him to stitch up the bullet wound in his shoulder and the older, semi-healed gash along his side and stomach.

"So..." Dick drawls, "what'd you get off your older self?"

Tim momentarily falters in his typing, but quickly clears his throat and says quietly, "even if I did get something off him, I wouldn't threaten the laws of time travel to tell you."

"And that's a smart idea too," Older Tim calls, "when I was Present Tim, my Future Tim tried to warn me about what happens, but even with all my plans and contingencies, I still ended up like this. My Future Tim had the same thing happen to him. At this point, I think it's almost inevitable. This is what we end up as."

Tim swallows thickly and sends a quick glance at the changing area before turning back to the screen, "there's not much that could have been done anyway. And knowing will only cause those involved to panic."

Older Tim gives a sharp nod and sketches a knowing grin, "that's not going to stop you from making plans though."

"No," Tim whispers, a promise, "no it's not."

Older Tim sighs, "a person often meets his fate on the road he took to avoid it. Be careful Tim, I don't want this for you."

The computer gives a beep and Tim stands from his chair, "the program will finish running the code to send him back in about ten hours. Ask the JL to deliver their teleporter. I'm going to bed, don't listen to anything he says." He's gone before anyone could say anything else.

Other Tim just huffs, sipping the hot chocolate that Alfred magically poofed into existence, _the ninja_, and sliding into the newly unoccupied chair to look over and double check the parameters of the code and program creating it.

"Why don't you want him to become you?"

Older Tim didn't even pause at Dick question, "because I become _Batman_."

"And that's...bad?"

"Of course it's _bad_." Older Tim hissed, "I never thought I'd be Batman. I signed up for Robin, for the supporting role, to be the placeholder. Batman....was never something I wanted."

"What about the others? Why didn't they take the mantle?"

"They did. You _all _did."

"What happened to them?"

Older Tim shrugged, "this and that. Some retired, some did a terrible job and were forced out, some died, some went missing, some were injured and had to retire."

There was a long pause, "that's...that's five. There were five Batmans before you?"

Older Tim nods, "I told you, I never wanted the mantle. I was perfectly fine as a semi-retired independent, far, _far, _away from here."

"Then why'd you take it up?"

"Someone had to." Older Tim's fists clinched as he snarled, "you-" he choked, breathing deeply to regain his calm. "No matter how much I just wanted to leave Gotham behind me after _everything_-" he shook his head and sighed, "it doesn't matter."

They fell into silence, until Dick asked, "why is Tim so against becoming you?"

"Because this isn't what we wanted for ourselves. I already said that we never wanted to be Batman, in fact, we only ever _wanted _to be Robin. We were supposed to quit when it was passed on but B went missing so we had to find him. After we did and things were settling out, our plans almost finished, prepared to retire, then Damian died and we had to go save him. One thing after another and I never found the time to do it. And once I did, the whole Batman Incident happened and I ended up in the cowl."

"How'd this 'Batman Incident' happen?" Older Tim leveled a look at Dick that he took to mean 'seriously? Haven't I already said I can't tell you?' and he continued, "if we know how it happened, we can stop it from happening this time."

"Nothing will change." And the way Tim said it, he truly believed that this was something unavoidable, his everything just screamed defeat, Dick wanted to hug him until he forgot about it. "I had made perfect plans to avoid each and every cause that lead up to it when my Future Tim warned me, and it still ended up like this. Each action I took to keep it from happening did nothing and it happened another way that I couldn't have even predicted. Someone more powerful than me, than _us_, wants this to happen, so it will happen, no matter what."

"You know who it is." Bruce said for the first time in quite a while, almost surprising Dick.

Older Tim shifts, "yeah. But he's so powerful that I couldn't stop him. He even imprisoned Doomsday, Mr. Mxyzptlk, Prophesy and probably more I don't know about. I only saw the ones in my section of-" Tim stopped abruptly, "forget that."

"This man took you too." Tim doesn't reply, "who was it?" No answer, "how'd you get out?" Still nothing, "do you at least know why he took you?"

"He...he wanted me out of the way at the time. Said I was 'reconnecting threads that weren't meant to be reconnected'. Needed me off the field at the time but still needed me in the future so..." He shrugged, "could have been worse. You can't tell Tim any of this. He'll understand when the time comes, it_ has _to happen like that."

"You're assuming he's not watching through the cameras," Dick pointed out.

Tim gave a little smile, "he's not. He knows better than that. He turned off the cameras before he left so he wouldn't be tempted. He'll get another visit from me in a few years, that one will be on purpose so I can deliver a warning."

"I have a feeling this one was on purpose as well."

"Well," Older Tim gives a smirk, "it definitely wasn't avoided." The smirk fades, "Tim needs a wake-up call, so I'm giving it to him, since nobody else would."

"What kind of wake up call?"

"The kind that keeps him from dying." Older Tim answers flatly, "now, I'm going to sleep. Where do you want me to do that?"

Just over five hours later, everyone was in the dinning room for the customary family brunch. Older Tim sat next to Tim, leaving Jason's usual seat empty to be as far away from Bruce and the others as politely possible.

"You know, they aren't going to do anything to you," Tim whispers as Dick and Damian talk across from them.

"That's not what I'm worried about," Older Tim was almost glaring at the two of them, Damian more than Dick.

And suddenly Tim remembers the look he sent Damian last night and what was down in the cave's changing area, "oh, right."

Older Tim spare him a small pitying smile, "I'm serious, get out while you can. None of this happens if you leave."

"Worse will happen."

"But not to you." Tim gives him a look that communicates perfectly his disbelief that they were really the same person if Older Tim thinks that matters to him. Older Tim sighs, "why was I like this?"

"From what I've gotten so far," Tim drawls quietly, "you're still like this."

"You'd think we'd learn by now."

"It's a personality trait, a flaw."

"What is?" Dick asked, and both Tim's berated themselves for not noticing the sudden quiet.

"Nothing," they say in unison and Older Tim continues, ignoring the others, "I mean, it could be worse. We could be drug addicts."

There was a second of silence then Tim countered, "technically, we are addicts."

A small lull where the others processed this and were in the process of opening their mouths when Older Tim beat them to it, "adrenaline, hell of a drug." They share a smirk at Dick and Bruce's relived sighs and Damian's annoyed huff.

"Seriously though," Older Tim starts and Tim nods, cutting him off.

"I know."

Older Tim side-eyed him and shook his head, "stubborn."

Tim just shrugged, downing the last of his coffee and standing to leave, "we're the same person. What'd you expect?" He left without a backward glance and Older Tim watched him go with thinly concealed sadness.

"What are you trying to get him to reconsider?"

"His priorities," Older Tim answers, eyes still on the empty doorway, but thoughts far away. "They've barely changed since he started following you and Bruce."

"And what are they?"

"Let's just say...he doesn't consider himself in the top ten at any point." A pause as his eyes focus, "and right now...he's practically at the bottom."

They're back down in the cave, earlier than usual to sort out the teleporter that League delivered, Older Tim now back in his Batman suit, off to the side with Dick, watching Bruce and Tim set everything up.

"If he's going to do what I think he's going to do, he's going to need people he trusts to support him in three to four months." Batman Tim says with the utmost seriousness, eyes on solely on Dick. "Get him to the Titans and make sure they know what happened because Tim won't tell them, or you really."

Dick makes a little wounded sound, "he doesn't trust us?"

"He doesn't even trust himself," Batman Tim says, gesturing to himself, "don't take it the wrong way, Dick. They've proved to him that they can take care of him when he needs them to."

"But we haven't," and it wasn't a question this time.

Batman Tim sighs, "Dick...god, I shouldn't be condoning this. There's still time, not for that little disaster, but for the later ones, if you try. Please don't make me regret this. If you betray him after everything else, he won't be able to trust anyone ever again." He pauses to see Dick's determined nod, "give him the same attention you give Damian, include him in things, don't just call for the job, cuddle the shit out of him no matter how much he protests. Make him feel like he's actually wanted and needed outside of the costumes."

"Hey!" Tim called from where he just finished programing the teleporter, "lets go! If you fudge the time stream up any more, our universe will split and diverge."

"I'm honestly hoping for it," Batman Tim mutters as they make their way to the others.

"Got everything?"

Batman Tim patted his holsters to check his guns and bo were still there in an exaggerated motion. "Yeah, Red, I got everything."

"Then you best get going. Who knows what Gotham got up to without her Batman."

Batman Tim shares a grin with his counterpart at the joke before walking straight though the blue vortex that will take him back home, not daring to look back at the others.


	4. BatComputer Update

Tim was in charge of constantly updating the BatComputer software and programs, which means sometimes, he has to explain how to use said computer to almost all the Bats. And _that _is a fucking trip.

  
He's put off this moment for well over two weeks (and you can tell in how poorly the nightly patrol reports were filed and in how it takes three times longer to track down a suspect than before) and Bruce had finally put his foot down about it since nobody but Tim and Barbara know how to work the monstrosity they had collaborated on. Which means he now has three angry Bats and Cass watching over his shoulder as he shows them how to work the new system.

He gets about thirty-five minutes into his lecture when (as usual) Jason interrupts, "were you fucking high when you made this, Timbers? What the fuck? That doesn't even make sense."

Tim sighs, mentally dumbing down everything he had just explained so they could understand it in layman's terms, rubbing between his brows where he can feel a headache coming as Steph wholeheartedly agrees with Jason, "yeah, I don't get why it needed this over the top redesign, it was working perfectly well before."

Damian tuts, "Drake likes to make things difficult."

Cass sets a soothing hand on Tim's back, a silent support that is literally the only thing keeping Tim from flipping the table. "Look, guys, it's not that hard. We just added more filters to the search algorithm, that's all. It's like choosing which scope to put on your rifle, _Jay_, or which tags to include in a fanfic, _Steph_. Or choosing the best acerbic comment to assault someone with to get the desired reaction, _Demon_."

There's a pause before the collective 'oh' moment, and Tim moves on, "the patrol report is literally the same, but you can't put the baddies' nicknames in because that's what the program uses to sort the reports in the proper files. So you can't call Ivy 'Red' or 'floral fury' or any of the other names you weirdos put in there, 'kay?"

There's a round of muttering that ends in Jason storming off, calling Tim a 'fun-sucker' followed by Damian's ever annoying tut as he too wanders off, leaving Steph and Cass with him. Tim gives one last large sigh before telling them, "last but not least, unless you press and hold the ctrl, alt, and shift keys for three seconds as you login, the computer will send an alert to B that you have logged onto the Batman Inc. System." He demonstrates, then hands them two pieces of paper, "also, I've changed everyone's passwords to their WE company log-ins. So because you've stayed till the end, here are yours."

Steph cackles madly, probably imagining Damian getting caught by Bruce when he sneaks down here at 6am to look through cases, or Jason getting a call from B at 11, asking why he's only now logging in for his patrol report. Cass pats Tim's head, before being dragged off by her girlfriend to do God knows what, Tim doesn't want to know.

Bonus Scene:

Oracle knows better than to try to explain it like she normally would to Tim or Bruce to literally anyone else, so she spends less than five minutes showing Dick how to operate the new software before making him do it by himself twice. With that done, she moves on to their weekly date and gives a silent prayer of patience to Tim who has to show all the other idiots how to work their system.

Extra Bonus Scene:

Bruce braved Tim's half-hour long explanation (spoken at speeds that Flash would be jealous of) in silence as he was shown all the upgrades and differences they had made, and when Tim finally stopped long enough to get a breath in, Bruce smoothly said, "Tim?"

"Yeah?"

"Get some sleep tonight."

"But-"

"Alfred?"

"Yes, Master Bruce?" Alfred materialists a few feet from them, where he'd been standing since before Bruce came off patrol.

"Would you ensure that Tim gets to bed without the distraction of any type of electronic nearby?"

"Certainly, sir. Master Timothy, if you would," Alfred sweeps his arm towards the stairs.

Tim heaves a long exhale as he stands, dragging his feet in the right direction, "can I get something to drink before bed, Alf?"

"Certainly, would you prefer warm milk or tea?"

Tim gives a disgusted look, before turning to him with large pleading eyes, "coffee?"

"Decaf only," Alfred returns, not fazed in the slightest by the eyes that regularly get hardcore businessmen and vigilantes alike to do what he wants.

Tim sighs in defeat, "okay."


	5. Timmy Needs Sleep

Dick was just coming in for a lunch break after running a few errands in the city, excited for some Alfred food while Bruce was busy with WE and everyone was out of the manor.

"Is today April or May?" Tim mutters, tapping away at his tablet for a few seconds before stopping, surprised, "oh, it's Monday."

_Or supposed to be out of the manor_, he thought as he stopped and watched in silence as Tim shook his head and scoffed, "time is a social construct."

"Timmy," Dick starts, concerned, "when was the last time you slept?"

"He passed out a few hours ago for about an hour." Jason piped up from where he was recording on the reading chair in the corner.

"How long have you been watching him?"

Jason shrugged at Dick's scandalized look, "since I got off patrol. Been about eight hours?"

"And you didn't do anything?"

"I brought him coffee when he was starting to lag."

"_WHAT_? You shouldn't do that! Why would you do that? He needs _sleep_! Not more coffee!" Dick was near livid as he whisper screamed at Jason, who just smirked.

"I never said I did the right thing. He's been keeping me entertained with his crazy."

"I'm putting him to sleep," Dick sighed in disappointment.

"You can _try_," Jason smirked again, readying his phone again to capture what was about to happen.

"Timmy," Dick called softly, waving his hand in front of the screen, waiting for a reaction he never got. "Tim," he tried again, louder, setting his hand on Tim's shoulder, still getting no reaction. "Hey, Tim," he said as he clicked the lock button on the tablet, turning the screen dark, Tim just continued to tap away at it, muttering under his breath. 

With a large sigh, Dick tried to take the dark tablet from his hands only to end up on the ground with an aching jaw before he could blink. "What?" He muttered, trying to comprehend what happened as Jason laughed till he wheezed.

Just then, Alfred came in from his grocery shopping, took one look at them and shook his head as he left. He came back a few minutes later with a cup of what smelt like coffee and presented it to the sleep deprived boy. "Master Timothy, your coffee."

Tim downed the coffee in seconds and Alfred retreated with the empty cup, "don't forget to catch him before he falls, Master Richard."

Before Dick could question him, Tim started swaying, the tablet slipping from his hands and his eyes fighting to stay open. Dick swiftly caught him just before he face planted into the coffee table and swung him up into his arms comfortably as Tim lost the battle and dropped into unconsciousness.

Jason sighed, "well, there goes my fun. You know, he actually pointed something out that was a rather weird coincidence."

"I'm almost afraid to ask," Dick said, moving to the door as Jason followed him.

"He pointed out that your last name sounds similar to my first name and that my last name starts with the same letter as Tim's first name and that Tim's last name starts with the same letter as Demon's first name." 

Jason almost ran into Dick when he slowed to a stop, "that's...woah. Three times is more than a coincidence at that point. That's...amazing that no one noticed till now."

"I'm sure he'd love to know he broke your brain, but you should probably get him to bed before patrol tonight." Jason smirked as he walked off to who knows where to do whatever he does outside of Hood.

Dick rolled his eyes, but continued up the stairs and put Tim to bed before finally getting that lunch he had come for.


	6. Meeting the Drakes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dick, Jason, Cass, and Tim are all transported to the past (in an alternate dimension? ) Jack and Janet are abusive and neglectful and the bats can't tell if their Tim went through this too or if he's just unfazed by what his younger self is dealing with.

When Dick woke up, he immediately noticed something was wrong. He opened his eyes to the dark smoggy Gotham night sky with grass under his back. A soft rustle from next to him brought his attention over to the heap of leather jacket shuffling beside him and the almost concealed glow of a haloglove alerted him to the faintly lit up domino. A gentle hand on his shoulder nearly made him sigh in relief, because no matter what happened, with the only sane one of their family with them, they'd make it out alive.

"The _fuck_ happened, Replacement?" Jason grumbled as soon as he shifted upright, holding his head like he had vertigo.

"Trying to figure that out, Hood. What's the last thing you can remember?" Tim replied, still typing away at the glove.

"Beating some thugs and stopping for a smoke."

"Around what time and where?"

"I don't know, like three or something. Across from that museum."

Tim nodded absently, "Cass and I were in the museum, in the process of stopping a robbery just after three when we were shot with some sort of beam. N, what about you?"

"Uhh," Dick rubbed the back of his neck with a small smile, "I was sneaking up on Jaybird."

Jason shoots a disgusted look at him before levering himself up and almost stumbling to a tree. "Anyone else feel like they got thrown through a wall or five?"

And until that moment, Dick could ignore the flashes of pain that radiated from his skull and shoulder. Wincing, Dick pushed himself to sit, "yeah. I feel like I fell."

"You did. Both of you did," Tim answers before pulling up a video his cowl recorded at an odd angle from the floor of Jason magically appearing about three stories in the air, unconscious, followed by a thud as he hit the ground. Less than a second after, Dick appeared in almost the same location and elicited a pop as he hit the ground.

"Your shoulder was dislocated, but Cass popped it back in for you, and you both probably have some kind of concussion."

"Well," Jason almost groaned in annoyance, "do you have any idea where we are?"

"Gotham," Cass says, pointing to the sky like the smog and perpetual darkness was supposed to clue them in.

"Looks like Robinson Park," Dick managed, watching Tim frown at his glove's projection.

"It is." Tim confirms, "but...."

Jason gives an irritated sigh, "let me guess, it's not our Gotham? It's some alternate universe. Just _fucking_ great!"

When Tim doesn't move to argue, Dick sighs as well, "well, what do we know about this version then?"

"It's April 17th 2003. There is a Batman and a Robin, so we could go to them, see if they can help us get back. There is no major events that I can see that varied from our universe, we may just be in the past as opposed to an alternate universe, so keep that in mind when interacting with people. We don't want to mess with the time stream anymore than we already have."

Dick clapped his hands, "so, first order of business is to find B. Lets hop to it!"

Tim shifted, dropping from his perch on a tree branch to walk into the trees a few feet, looking in a random direction like he knew something was there, because he did. "You can come out now."

Jason and Dick stiffen when the shadows move, Cass staying calm beside them as Batman slowly materializes from the dark around the trees. Dick relaxes minutely as Jason tenses even more. Tim just nods, eyes on the flash of red and green beneath B's cape, "I assume you heard our problem. Are you able to help us fix it?"

A long stretch of silence follows as B takes in the quartet of stranded vigilantes, "I'll have to verify the validity of your claims."

"We'd expect no less."

Tim answers calmly as Jason quietly seethes, "always so proper, always so strict, always walking around with a stick up your ass."

Cass settles a hand on Jason's shoulder that calms him down, but Batman and Robin had already heard him and reigned in their curiosity in favor of getting somewhere secure.

"We need to take you to a secure facility-"

Jason cut B off, "you ain't knocking me out, Old Man."

"Little Wing, clam down-"

"No," Jason cuts right across whatever Dick was trying to say, "we don't even know if this is our Batman or some other weirdo with a bat fetish. I'm not letting some old fucker knock me out and-"

"He's definitely the same as our B, Hood."

Jason turns to Tim, "and how would you know, Replacement?"

Tim shrugs, "he's got the same build, jawline, mannerisms, and speech patterns."

"Stalker," Jason mutters, but Tim steamrolls right over him, even though everyone could hear.

"Not to mention, the events leading up to him donning the cowl are the same as what happened to our B, there is a less than one percent chance that this isn't the same man, and a less than four percent chance that that isn't the same Robin as our first one."

At that, Robin's head poke out from under the cape, "first one? You have more than one Robin?"

All eyes are on the boy who looks equally excited and upset. "Seriously, Dickhead? You've gotta be like, fifteen or sixteen. Why were you still hanging off B?"

Dick shifts at Jason's disbelieving stare as he glances between Dick and Robin. Tim pipes up from where he'd somehow, silently slipped back onto his tree branch perch, "fifteen. N didn't get a growth spurt until he was nearly sixteen, and continued to try to climb B even now sometimes."

Dick gives Tim a betrayed look as Jason snorts, "of course your stalker _would _know that, and of course the Dick _would _do that, but _why_ would B _let_ you?"

Now all eyes are on Dick as he huffs, "I was small and light and B didn't even really notice me."

Tim, Cass, and Jason were all arching their brows in disbelief, "B didn't put up much of a fight against it."

"He gave up after the seventh time I did it?" Dick tried as he could tell no one believed him.

Silence, and Dick sighed in defeat, "we still argue about it."

"Now _that _I believe," Jason smirked, "though I gotta admit, something about having a smiling blue teddy bear clinging to the big bad Bat while he's trying to intimidate answers out of some thugs will always be one of my favorite things to see."

Tim smirks, "the look of _I'm so _done_ with this little twerp _on B's face is pretty priceless."

Dick smiles a little as well, "and the terror and confusion on the baddies faces are so worth it."

Somehow while they were distracted, Cass had snuck up on B and Robin and was gently removing Robin from B's cape before folding him into a hug with a murmured "brother".

B watched it all with a odd sort of mental numbness he was unused to and by the time he came out of it, Tim was leading them all through the park in the direction of where he'd left the Batmobile. Robin was in Cass's arms, talking animatedly with both Cass and Dick, and Jason was in the back, with a careful eye on B like he didn't trust him.

"You'll have to forgive Hood," Tim told him quietly, "a certain incident left a bad taste in his mouth when it comes to Batman. Most of us actually have a hangup against possibly alternate versions of Batman."

"Something happened?"

Tim barely shifted at the question, but B caught it as nervousness, "an alternate future Batman found his way into our time and tried to kill certain members of the family. He failed, but it left a sore spot for everyone."

A lull passes as Batman processed that, then Tim continued, "we forgot to introduce our selves. I'm Red Robin, leather jacket is Red Hood, black and blue is Nightwing, and she's between names right now, so Black Bat or Orphan is fine."

"We'd really prefer not to be knocked out when you take us to the cave since we all know where it is anyway, it's kind of a moot point." Tim points out as they arrive at the Batmobile, where Jason, B, Dick, and Robin realize that they won't all be able to fit in it. But before anyone could open their mouths to say anything, Robin's motorcycle pulled up next to them, followed by Robin's backup motorcycle.

When B and Robin turned to look at him, Tim just shrugged, "figured we'd need more room. BB can take a bike with Robin while the rest of us take the car."

"Why does she get the extra bike?"

Cass gave Jason a look that made him sigh and mumble a "ugh, fine, whatever."

And they were off, racing through the streets with a Batman that was softer and less paranoid than their own, and though Tim knew _about _it, it was a whole other thing to be _seeing _the difference right in front of you.

Alfred was waiting for them when they arrived in the cave wearing a domino and preparing tea. Cass slipped him a hug like it was normal, which it was for her, Alfred just gave a surprised smile and hugged her back.

Little Dick bounced after her, also giving Alfred an excited hug, Jason drifted towards him as well, not close enough to touch, but still at a noticeable distance from Batman. Dick watched with Tim and B, "it's weird, I don't remember this at all. Maybe it's a parallel universe?"

Tim bit his lip, but didn't verbalize his argument, despite both B and N having seen it.

"You don't agree?"

Tim shrugged, not bothering to answer. There's a moment of silence before Jason concludes, "you want to leave room for doubt in case we see something here that you don't want us to see."

Dick adds quickly, in a useless effort to stop the argument he can feel coming, "or in case we accidentally tip off Bruce to possible future events."

Tim rears up at Jason's jab, "why does it have to be something I don't want you to see, it could be something you don't want us to see, or Cass!"

Jason snorts as the whole Cave zeros in on their conversation, "please, Pretender, everyone knows I lived on the streets, not much effort to guess what'd I'd be doing right now. We _all _know what Cass was doing, and you of all people would know exactly what Dick was doing, being their stalker and all. But no one knows what you were doing, that is, when you weren't running rooftops with a camera and a death wish."

Tim's face blanks out, goes completely smooth and Cass is there in a flash, a firm hand on his bicep and an order to _breathe_.

Jason snorts at the reaction and throws an off-handed comment, "where are your parents now, Peru? Cuba? Europe? Anywhere but at home with you?"

"_Hood_," Dick's Batman voice was still good enough to get Jason to at least flinch slightly, "that's _more _than enough."

Tim shrugs out of Cass's grip and replies blandly, "Russia, actually. They'll make a small stop here for one of Bruce's Galas, then Brazil, Egypt, and Turkey. They'll return five months late for my birthday thinking it _is _my birthday and forget about me after a day. After that, I stopped paying attention."

They all blink at that, Dick and Jason not knowing it was that bad, Alfred, Mini Dick, and Bruce surprised parents would do that to their child.

"Fuck, Tim," Jason groans, "you never told anyone?"

Tim shrugs, "what's there to tell? They were barely a part of my life. Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to get _home_, how about we focus on that?"

It takes them a few moments but, eventually, they return to finding a way back to their time.

After a week of working to solve their problem, with Tim and Bruce doing most of the work, Dick and Teen Dick helping with the coding where they can, Jason putting his input on the machine they have to build from scratch, and Cass and Alfred keeping them all alive and functional, they finally finish the coding. 

Jason and Dick are more that antsy, being unable to patrol or leave the manor at all, Cass is helping everyone where she can, Bruce and Kid Dick are wearing themselves out between patrols, their daytime lives, trying to get the visitors back to their time, and preparing for the Gala, and Tim finds his eyes drifting over to the Drake manor whenever he stops long enough to take a breath.

They get the prototype done the day of the Gala and Tim's so distracted, looking off in the direction of his old house, that they eventually shoo him upstairs to rest, Cass following to make sure he's okay. They stay in his room until Smaller Dick comes by to tell them they're about to start, at which point, Cass slips out to distract Dick and Jason and Tim suits up in a slight disguise and sneaks downstairs to find his younger self.

After grabbing an ice pack from the kitchen, he makes his way through the rooms, searching out the younger Dick, and once he found him, he focused on the shadowy corners. Locating his target, Tim silently slid to a stop next to the smaller boy who looked up at him in shock. Smiling, he offered the ice pack which was hesitantly accepted and maneuvered to the boy's back. They watched the other people in silence for a long time before they caught sight of Bruce, coming to check on Dickie.

Bruce, who took one look at Tim's 'disguise' and the boy he was next to and watched as the pieces fell into place. Bruce, who immediately turned to look for their parents and finding none. Bruce, who realized that the boy looked familiar and brought up memories of when he showed up to Bruce's Galas even when his parents were away on business. Bruce, who's memories showed him a happier boy when he was alone at said Galas, when his parents had been out of the country for months on end. Bruce, who zeros in almost immediently on the stiff way the boy was holding himself and the barely visible corner of on of Alfred's ice packs on his back.

"He's onto you," Tim warned his counterpart, who hadn't asked even a single question he was thinking up to that point, enjoying the silence and presence of someone who seemed to understand him.

His mini-me cocked his head in question and Tim continued, "I'd stay a little deeper in the shadows for the next few months running the rooftops. And perhaps, don't come to the next few Galas alone?"

Tiny Tim narrowed his eyes at Tim, assessing him before they widened, "how....Time travel?"

Tim smiles, "something like that."

Timmy nods, choosing not to ask, and goes back to watching the party goers in silence.

Dickie leaves for bed at midnight along with a big chunk of the guests. Bruce wanders back over to them almost an hour after the mass exodus of people. He leans against the wall to the side of them and cheerfully introduces himself. Timmy shakes his hand and offers his name. Bruce starts up a conversation and Tim lets them talk for nearly a half hour before excusing both him and Bruce and leading him across the room to watch.

Bruce follows confused as they settle against the opposite wall and, to look the part, Tim snags a half empty champagne glass someone left unattended. They're silent for almost ten minutes before Jack and Janet sweep into the room, visiting the last few stragglers and talking with them. They stop by Bruce to exchange words, ignoring Tim completely, before moving on to the next person. Bruce watches with interest as they finish their rounds and walk out the door, making a sharp gesture that gets Timmy to follow quickly after, hiding the ice pack that's gone warm by now.

Tim feels a sudden sadness hit him full force and he turns to leave, Bruce following behind. Once they get to Tim's temporary room, Bruce stops him, "what happened to his back?"

Tim shrugs, "I didn't ask him."

"You shouldn't have to. You've lived it, so what happened to his back?"

"Nothing you need to concern yourself with. He knows how to deal with it himself."

"If his parents are abusing him-"

Tim cuts him off sharply, "you can't do anything, Bruce. Even_ if_ you had evidence, which you don't, their legal team might just be better than yours." A moment of silence, "just let it go, Bruce. He knows what he's doing."

"Because you did?"

Tim rubs his face vigorously, "I don't think you understand how easily he could die. Those people have the money and the power to make him disappear. You _need _to let it go. Sure, it may not be perfect, but it's still better than what a lot of children have. _Leave it be_."

Bruce looks like he's ready to argue so Tim cuts him off with a tired, "_please_, Bruce. _Please_ leave them alone."

Bruce can't promise it, but he closes his mouth, leaving Tim to return to the practically dead party downstairs. Tim sighs in relief and finally enters his room, already imagining a hot shower, only to come face to face with a furious Jason and worried Dick, Cass is on the bed with understanding clear on her face. 

Tim groans and pushes his way through his two over-reacting brothers and into the bathroom, "go away, I don't want to talk about it."

"You sure you don't want to talk about it, Timbers?" Dick calls through the door.

"Like I said, it could have been worse, I'm fine."

"That's fucking bullshit, Replacement!"

Tim's tiredness doubles as he leans against the door and mumbles, "I'm over it. I don't want to talk about it. It's in the past."

"We're in the past," Dick points out.

"It's in _my_ past," Tim corrects, "and I'm not dredging it up so you can feel like you've done something about it. Now go away."

A moment of quiet shuffling and Dick calls, "we're definitely talking about this when we get back to our time, Tim. Don't think you can get out of it."

"Just go away," Tim sighs in momentary defeat. Once they leave and he takes his shower and falls into bed, he lets himself think about everything that just happened and cry in peace.

Two days after the Gala, they're back in their time and Tim's flown the coop before Dick can even think to stop him. Cass stops him and Jason from hunting him down, allowing him space and them time to think of a plan of action to help.

After speaking with Bruce and Lucius and Alfred and anyone else they can think of that had come into close contact with the Drakes before their deaths, they can paint a pretty good picture of them. Janet was a cut throat business woman who was always perfect and precise. Jack was an easy to anger man obsessed with archeology. Neither wanted nor cared for their son and only accepted the best from him. At a glance they seemed like an almost perfect family, but there were several rumors that they were neglectful and abusive, physically, emotionally, mentally, some rumors said they threatened to have him kidnapped and killed on multiple occasions. The Drake's lawyers would always sue for slander and anything else they could get to make those rumors disappear.

They resolved to try to slowly get him to open up about everything, and after a month of hiding away with the Titans, he slowly came back into the fray. Operation Help Tim was officially a go.


	7. Operation: Help Tim

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A continuation of Meeting The Drakes

It was four months after their little trip to the past, just over three since Dick, Jason, Cass, Babs (who they called in for help with the Drakes' history and promptly decided she was going to help no matter what), and Steph (who accidentally overheard Dick and Babs conversation one night and elbowed her way in) made up their minds to help Tim, when an almost world ending catastrophe lead Tim to be injured enough that Alfred insisted he stay in the Cave for medical attention.

Tim, for obvious reasons (i.e. trying to avoid the Bats and any hint of their 'help'), did not like that one bit. He insisted he was capable enough to take care of himself. Alfred reminded him that he did not have to and admonished him for not allowing people take care of him. Tim argued that the Titans could take care of him just fine and tried to compromise by suggesting he be left at the Tower so they could watch over him. Alfred refused to even dignify that with a response before leaving to clean everyone's after patrol mess.

Tim resigns himself to a few days in the manor, relieved that Cass and Damian were the only ones that lived there full time now. While he was lost in his mind, reassuring himself, he didn't notice Steph and Dick trying to get his attention until she literally shook him out of his head. He mentally berates himself on his lack of situational awareness, the rational part of his brain telling him that that was thanks to the moderate concussion he had, the less than rational part telling him that he needs to be better, do better.

"Hey!" Steph practically screams in his ear, once again snapping him from his thoughts, "Timmy, you in there?"

It takes him a moment to get his mouth working again, but his words are clear, "can you _not_? My head already feels like it's going to fall off."

Steph gives a apologetic grimace before her smile lights back up, "family movie night upstairs, since everyone's too tired to leave. Lets go, get into your chair, chop chop."

Tim blinks at her for a moment, then to where she gestured to Dick, who was leaning on a wheelchair. _Right_, because he fractured a hip and got impaled in the calf. Just the thought of moving made him sick and he gave a pitiful groan, "rain check."

"Aww! But Timmy," Dick whined, just a pitch too high, making Tim's headache spike, "we're watching The Hobbit Trilogy!"

With a severely pinched face, Tim manages a quiet, "Dick, I'm going to need you to shut up. You're going to make me sick."

And honestly, this is why those two are the most oblivious of all the Bats, because it takes _that_ long for them to realize that his concussion really is that bad.

"Oh," Steph whispers, "sound sensitive?"

"And movement," Tim moans painfully.

They hum sympathetically, and apparently decide to finally leave him alone as they wave goodnight and leave. Tim gets the rather annoying feeling that they let up far too easily and he's already dreading tomorrow as his eyes close of their own volition and he drifts off to sleep.

He wakes up slowly, an effect of the low dose morphine they have him on, his head didn't feel like it was being squeezed by Bane anymore, but his ears were ringing. _Wait, no,_ that's someone's phone that's ringing.

"Jay? Something wrong?" Dick asked, sounding far away but also very loud to his sensitive ears and still aching brain.

A pause that could have been anywhere from a few seconds to a couple of minutes followed before he could hear footsteps pacing, short anxious strides in a quick _tap tap tap _pattern that grated on Tim very frayed patience.

"You sure you got it handled? It wouldn't be hard for me to get there if you want," he offered as casually as he could because Dick did not know the meaning of sly.

Another pause, a sigh as his nervous pacing came to a stop, "Timmy? Nah, he hasn't woken up yet." Dick gave a little hum, "yeah, I was going to try and ask him about that when he woke up. I still have no memory of it, neither do B or A, but Timmy _knew_ that was our past, not an alternate one. Speaking of that, what got rid of our memories to begin with? B isn't really one for erasing his own memory unless absolutely necessary, so what gives?"

Tim put a lot of effort into not tensing as his headache grew worse and worse the longer Dick talked, and not just because of the concussion. There was another long pause, Dick giving little acknowledgements and encouraging sounds. "You think Tim did it? Some kinda automated Mind Wipe device set for just after we left? That would explain why B, A, and I don't remember, but he does," Dick hums at the thought before saying his goodbyes and hanging up.

"For the record," Tim finally piped up, causing Dick to jump slightly, "I told him he shouldn't have gotten involved, but he did."

Dick was confused, "who? Bruce? What'd he get involved in?"

Tim sighs and shifts uncomfortably, having never liked talking about his past or his parents. "My parents were part of the Court," Dick tenses, shocked, "they weren't very active, but they were still pretty...influential. When Bruce started poking his nose into my home life, trying to get enough evidence to hold up in court, my parents didn't like it. Neither did the Court. They wanted to send a Talon out for all three of you." Tim swallows thickly, looking anywhere but where Dick was frozen in horror, "I suggested to my parents that they should try out the newly finished Memory Altering Drug instead. It was a new prototype from one of the shadier Drake Industries Labs, they had just finished animal testing and were getting ready for human testing next. The chances of the drug having negative effects were extremely low, I made sure of it before I proposed it. They sent Talon in to put the drug in your food and activate it with the order of killing you should the drug not work. You forgot all about me and anything from half a year prior that was 'out of the ordinary'."

Dick was dead quiet after Tim finished explaining, trying to digest what he'd just revealed that no one knew or even suspected. Eventually, he was able to ask, a little dumbfounded, "your parents, Jack and Janet Drake, were a part of the Court of Owls?"

Tim nodded, a feeling of dread settling deep in his stomach.

"The Court wanted us dead, because Bruce was poking around too close to their secret."

It wasn't a question, but Tim nodded anyway.

"You managed to convince them to mind wipe us instead."

His mind flashed back to the punishment he'd received for thinking he was smart enough to _suggest_ alternate options with his parents and he forced his face blank to hide his shakiness.

"How did you know the drug would work?"

"I...sort of helped make it?" Tim said, more question than answer, Dick's raised eyebrow silently demanded more. "After school, I would sneak into a Drake Industries Lab, read through what they already had and improve it. Originally the Mind Altering Drug had a reaction similar to Fear Gas because their compounds and ratios were slightly off. I fixed it up for them so I knew that it was the best it could be."

"How did you know about all this?"

Tim shrugged, "they would forget I was there more often than not. What I overheard, I crosschecked with what I could hack once I learned about it."

"And you just...you never told anyone?"

"Who could I have told? After that, the Court kept sharp eyes on you. By the time they were no longer a threat it'd been years and I didn't know if there would have been any negative effects to your psyches if I even _could _trigger your memories. I deemed the memories less important than your minds and left it all in the past. I stand by that decision."

Dick looked a little lost for words, standing there, wide-eyed and mouth opening and closing uselessly.

"Don't get bent up about it, Dick. There wasn't much you could have done had you known anyway."

"They were abusing you! Neglecting you!"

"It could have been worse," Tim cuts Dick off before he could really get into his rant. "There are alternate universes where I died of dehydration or starvation or hypothermia. Where I was kidnapped and sold or killed or raised to kill. Where Ra's got his hands on me and I killed my own parents for trading me for favors. There's so many ways my life could have turned out worse. And granted, it's not the best, I'm not a doctor or photographer or insurance agent, I wasn't raised on the streets or in orphanages or adopted, but I'm also not _dead_. I count that as a win most days, wouldn't you?"

There was silence as Dick absorbed that word vomit and Tim tried to wrestle his feelings back in check. With a deep sigh, Dick sags, "I just want to know what I can do to help you, Tim."

"There's nothing you can do. I've come to terms with my past and with my possibilities. I'd go so far as to say that the only man more emotionally stable in this family than me would be Alfred." Tim tells him, "It's far too late to do anything about it even if I wanted to. Bringing it to light now would only sully the Drake name and seeing as how I'm the only one left using it...."

"It wouldn't be a good idea," Dick finished when Tim trailed off. "Okay. I understand your reasoning, but that doesn't mean I agree." They sit in silence for a few minutes as Dick finishes processing everything that'd just been brought to light. "Are you at least seeing someone? Talking to someone about all of this?"

The way that Dick looks almost pleadingly makes Tim almost want to smile, "of course. Mental health is probably more important than physical health. Dinah suggested I see someone back during the YJ, she brought up good points and I took her advice."

Dick let out a sigh of relief, silently praising the woman and her skills. "I jus - Can.... You can always come to me if you need to talk, always. You know that, right?"

Both Tim and Dick flash back to when Tim tried to do just that and Dick basically signed him up for the loony bin without even considering that he might be right. Tim gave a painfully realistic smile and lied, "I know," just like he lied after Ra's threw him out a window and Dick caught him. He feels like he's always lying to people, especially Dick and Bruce. "Now get out of here. Didn't you have a date with Babs?"

"Shoot!" Dick looks surprised, jumping up and running for the stairs, calling out a goodbye over his shoulder. He listens as Dick's footsteps fade until he can't hear them anymore and relaxes into the bed.

"Liar," Cass' voice startles him and he berates himself on letting his guard down.

"Yeah," he sighs, "I know."

"He loves you." Cass informs him, slinking out of the shadows to settle near his hip, "trying to redeem past. To fix."

"Not everything can be fixed, Cass. You know that."

"He too. Still trying."

Tim sighs, "his redemption has become something more of an inning than a single batter." Cass looks confused so he elaborates, "he's two strikes from his third out. After that, game over.... Somebody's losing."

Cass takes a moment to try and understand what he's trying to say before shaking it off and accepting his almost defeated body language. The words wouldn't come to her so she couldn't vocalize what she knew to be true about both of them which frustrates her to no end. Frowning, she gently scoots him over until she can curl up next to him and offer silent optional comfort.

Tim quietly accepts and they slowly drift off to sleep in a mutual understanding and only slightly depressed contentment.

By the time he's able to slip out of the cave and finally head back to the Titans, he'd been similarly confronted by Jason, Steph, Babs, and a slightly misinformed Damian (who had apparently overheard Dick explaining things to Bruce and Alfred). Steph and Babs were easy enough to deal with, as their questions mainly centered around his mental state and making sure he knew they'd help with anything should he need it. Jason was practically a reiteration of the conversation with Dick just with a lot more yelling and cursing on Jason's part. And explaining things to Damian led to an hour or more long description of his other universe lives which neither will ever admit to enjoying.


	8. Tim has Powers?!?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warning! Suicidal thoughts and actions, suicide attempts, panic attacks. Be careful yall.

Tim's a meta, but no one knows, because Tim's power is not obvious in any way really. It's simple, Tim found out about it when he was eight, after two years of stalking Batman and Robin. At first he thought he was dreaming, maybe seeing what could happen, little warnings that he followed, but after a not so accidental incident, he realized the truth. See Tim had thought that his dreams would warn him of what to avoid so he wouldn't slip off the side of a building and die. That's not what his power was at all.

Whenever Tim dies he gets sent back to the last time he was asleep.

Tim was Tired™. Beyond tired, he could feel it in his _bones _he was so tired. He'd lived the same day for three weeks now, and each day got him no closer to the answer. It was really starting to annoy him. Heaving a sigh, he rolled out of bed and dragged himself to the kitchen where Bruce, Dick, Damian, and Alfred were.

"Oh! Hey," Dick started as soon as Tim slid passed the door.

"In the microwave," Tim cut him off, all but falling into his chair and face planting in his food. Dick paused for a second before checking the microwave silently and turning back to him in amazement when he found his keys in it.

"H-"

"Because I saw them last night," Tim lies, once again cutting Dick off. Bruce looks up at Tim's dead and annoyed tone, raising an eyebrow as Damian tuts in annoyance.

"Are-"

Tim cuts Bruce off quickly, "I'm fine." And as Bruce opens his mouth again, Tim beats him to it, "yes, I'm sure. Sixty-two. Japan. No, I'm not reading your mind. Can you leave me alone now? Thank you."

Now everyone's silent as they stare at him, eventually, Alfred clears his throat, and says dryly, "well, I do believe Master Timothy would like to be left undisturbed today."

"Unfortunately, fate wont let that happen today," Tim laments, finishing off his food and standing from the table.

"Wh-"

"Joker's decided he's going to throw a party today and I only have the location of forty-two of his bombs is what I mean."

Silence as Tim makes his way down to the cave and the others absorb the new info. It takes almost a minute before Dick is bolting after him, Bruce right after and Damian and Alfred trailing behind.

"Explain," Bruce tells him once he catches up to where Tim is already typing away at the Batcomputer, Dick watching anxiously from the side.

"Joker and Harley have convinced Ivy, Crane, and Dent to place an unknown amount of bombs around the city to be detonated at midnight. So far, I've found the approximate area of forty-two of those bombs but I haven't been able to get to them yet so I don't know what kind they are or how to deactivate them. They may have also gotten help from other Rogues I'm unaware of at the moment." Tim tells them as he pins down the locations on the screen for them to see. "There's one somewhere around the cave so I'd get to looking for that while I try and narrow down some more locations."

Bruce sends Dick and Damian to do just that and Tim continues on, "O, I know you're listening, call everyone in on this, tell them to be discrete, we don't want Joker setting them off early. Get Selina in on it too, she's helpful with narrowing down locations. It's safe to assume that anywhere with a lot of plant life has one of Ivy's plant growth bombs near it. Based on what I've got so far, Joker and Crane have theirs in populated areas while Dent put his in hospitals and banks. Some of them have a signal you can try to locate."

He didn't get a reply, but he didn't need one, he doesn't bother looking over at Bruce when he says, "I'll explain everything if we survive this. I don't feel like repeating myself again."

Bruce is hesitant to leave, but is soon called over to where Dick's found the bomb.

It takes less than an hour for Jason, Luke(Batwing), Harper(Bluebird), and Duke(the Signal) to check in at the Cave, changing into their costumes and heading back out to find and disable as many bombs as they can find alongside O's Birds (currently, Catwoman, Batwoman, Batgirl, Orphan, Black Canary, Huntress, and Manhunter). Within two hours of waking up, they'd found and disarmed over fifty bombs and Tim is starting to wonder why he didn't try this direct route a week ago. Tim makes sure to memorize the position of each of the bombs and what kind they are because he doesn't want to go through this process again.

With only Alfred in the cave at the moment and Tim scheduled to leave and help with the foot work as soon as he finishes writing a program to search for bombs automatically, his plans of resetting just after midnight are in full swing. Unfortunately for him, as soon as he finishes and heads out, Jason shows up and implements the 'buddy system' as he asks question after question about how he knew and what was up with him today just to irritate the last nerve Tim has left.

As it starts to get dark, they seem to be feeling the time crunch because the comms are dead silent and Jason had stopped talking a few hours prior when it became obvious that Tim wasn't going to answer at all. By the twelve hour mark, they'd found well over a hundred bombs but kept looking, they wouldn't know if they'd got them all till midnight arrived, but until then, they'd keep looking. At eleven, Dick starts to get chatty, filling the comms with nervous chatter that Steph, Harper, Duke, Kate, and Selina engage with. With thirty minutes left, the chatter begins to fizzle out until it's silent once again with ten minutes to go.

As the minutes tick down, Tim focuses on memorizing the locations of nearly two hundred bombs, ignoring the extremely tense Jason standing behind him, likely reading over his shoulder. With twenty seconds left, Tim closes down his halo-glove and stands on the edge of the roof, waiting, Jason watching the opposite direction.

When midnight hits and nothing happens, Tim lets out an explosive sigh, nearly all the tension draining from his body, but still they wait. As the minutes tick on, nobody talks over the comms until thirty minutes have passed. Dick, as always, breaks the silence with a congratulations and an offer to take double patrol routes in case anyone was too tired. The comms dissolve into chatter once again but Tim doesn't let up, still waiting for something to happen.

Jason slides into the area next to him, giving him a side glance before taking a seat on the edge of the roof and nearly pulling Tim with him. "So, seriously, kid, what's wrong?"

Tim shakes his head, sighing, "nothing's wrong. Well, nothing's any more wrong than it normally is here."

Jason snorts, "okay, then what are you worrying about?"

"The usual," Tim answers with a shrug, eyes firmly ahead of him.

"Care to share?"

Tim shakes his head before freezing, _why not? It's not like he's going to remember it after I reset. It'll be like a test run._ Tim pulls his legs up, hugging his knees to his chest and staring at his feet. "Y-" he starts out rough, clearing his throat, "you know how B didn't like Metas before?"

Jason tilts his head slightly, not knowing where this is going, "yes?"

"Is.... Do you think Duke's an exception to that or has B changed his views as a whole?"

Silence as Jason most likely puzzles out what Tim didn't say. After nearly a minute, he let out a deep sigh, "it's hard to say. I don't think he had any real prejudice against them. I think he was just paranoid in general. He didn't trust a lot of people, and those he did trust never happened to be openly Meta. I think...I think that's something you should ask him yourself. But I think his dislike for them wouldn't apply to anyone he trusts."

They were quiet as Tim absorbed and processed and over thought, "do you think he trusts me? A-after so many years?"

"Honestly? He probably already knows somehow. He _is_ a paranoid fucker. He probably tested you forever ago and assumed it was some invisible mutation if you never showed it to him before."

Tim freezes up, panic seizing his chest as he tries to breathe, _Bruce could already know. Bruce could secretly hate him or not trust him. Bruce could hate him. Bruce probably _does_ hate him. Bruce definitely never trusted him. Of course he wouldn't trust him, he blackmailed his way into Robin, he's secretly a Meta, why _would_ Bruce trust him?_

Tim didn't hear Jason calling for him or feel Jason shaking him, but he did feel the sharp prick of a needle and the thick hazy feeling he got after, quickly pulling him to sleep. _NO! I can't sleep yet! I have to reset first! I need to avoid all of this!_

In a daze, Tim jerks back, falling over the edge of the roof as Jason lunges quickly after him, grappling them both to the alley so as to not have a repeat of that heart attack inducing moment. Tim scrambles numbly for a birdarang, quickly raising it to his throat before Jason's hand flashes out and wraps around the sharp metal, wrenching it from his grasp before tossing it and grabbing Tim's wrists in one strong hand.

Jason's voice filters back in muffled before snapping into focus quickly, "Tim...alm dow...breat ...ou're frea..me out, kid. I need you to breathe, calm down, tell me what's wrong."

"Nonononononono. Let me go....I have to reset. This can't happen. Let me go! Jason, please! This is bad, let me reset. Let me, let me, Jason, please, I needto resetpleaseletmeletmego letmeresetJasonletmeletmeletme le..t...me..Jas....on." His knees give out beneath him and Jason softly lowers him to the ground as he mumbles and pleas until he passes out.

Once he's finally passed out, Jason sighs before calling in to have the medbay ready when they got there. Ignoring most of the questions coming in over the comms, he picks Tim up, disappointed with how light the kid is, and carries him to his motorcycle before driving them both to the Cave.

Before he's even fully stopped the bike, Steph's pulled Tim out of his arms and carried him off to the waiting bed. Alfred already has Tim's costume off, an IV drip in him, and half the usual machines are hooked up to him as Jason walks in. "Master Jason, could you explain the situation?"

Jason inhales deeply before letting it out in a rush, "yeah, just give me a minute to _figure out _what happened." He watches Alfred busy himself with cleaning the small scratches and cuts along Tim's hands and washing the dirt off his face. Steph, Duke and Selina are watching from the main cave, talking quietly among themselves.

"He had a panic attack, I guess. Started hyperventilating and shaking, not responding at all, freaked out when I gave him a small dose of tranqs, had to catch him when he fell off the roof, then he tried to slice his throat. I stopped him, and he went almost catatonic again, then he started rambling about resets, begging me to let him go, and finally passed out."

"What started it?"

Jason shifted, eyes drifting back to Tim, "it's not really for me to say...but I think what set it off was my answer to his question...about B's trust in him."

Alfred paused for less than a second, voice deceptively even, "he questions whether Master Bruce trusts him?"

"That's what I gathered." Jason shifted again, lowering his voice to make sure that the people in the main cave couldn't hear, "did you know about his...ah..."

Alfred raised an eyebrow, "if you're referring to his unique genes, then yes, I am. Is that what brought this on?"

Jason nods, "does B know?"

Alfred considers it for a few seconds, "I'm unaware of whether Master Bruce knows of that little detail or not. Though I highly doubt it would change his view on Master Timothy in any way."

Sighing, Jason nods, "that's what I told him, but he freaked out when I suggested the possibility that he already knows."

"I see. And you're absolutely certain he was going to slit his throat?"

"There's not much else you can do with a birdarang to the neck."

"Well, let us hope we are wrong then, Master Jason."

"Yeah, Alf, lets hope." And with that, Jason leaves, headed to the guest bedroom he uses when he's too tired to drive to one of his safe houses.

Tim woke up in pieces, bit by bit, groaning and rubbing his face. Or trying to, but his arms were tied to the bed. Before he could start freaking out in full, Alfred rested a hand on his shoulder, calm voice soothing him. "Master Timothy, good to see you awake."

"Wha...what happened?"

"I was hoping you could tell me. Master Jason has shared what he thinks happened, would you tell me what you remember?"

"Why am I tied to the bed?"

"We were afraid you'd hurt yourself."

His memories snapped back into place and he resisted the urge to try to reset, knowing it'd fail. "I'm not going to kill myself, Alf. I'm not suicidal," _at the moment._ "You can untie me."

Alfred hesitated for just a split second, but it was enough for Tim to notice and spark anxiety, _does he know now too? Does he not trust me either? This was such a huge mistake, I should have kept quiet, I should have restarted immediately. What do I do if Alfred hates me too? I can't do this, I ca-_

"Can you tell me what happened?" Alfred's voice breaks through his erratic and panicked thoughts, Tim looks down and he's been released from the bed, the monitors beeping like crazy as his panic is on full display. He hesitates, trying to breathe and calm himself as Alfred continues, "Master Tim, you have always been far from average. You're a brilliant young man who the family trusts, we couldn't imagine living without you. You're Meta status will change nothing."

Tim flinched at the word before forcing his face blank, "how can you be sure?"

"Master Duke is every bit a part of this family as you are, Master Tim, and he's not treated any differently."

"It's different. Duke never hid it, never lied about it."

Alfred sighed, "you were protecting yourself, there is no shame in that. You might have hurt their feelings by not trusting them with the knowledge, but they would never hold it against you for protecting yourself first and foremost."

Immense guilt overtook him as he realized that he never did trust his family enough, Alfred cleared his throat before Tim could get pulled into another panic attack. "Let us table that discussion for now, Master Timothy. I'd like to know what happened."

Tim stiffly shrugged, "I panicked. Things weren't supposed to go that way." He trailed off, murmuring, "I wanted to reset, one last time to get it right, but Jason wouldn't let me."

"'Reset' how?"

There was a tense moment of silence before Tim whispered, "I die and return to the last time I was asleep."

"How many times did you live through yesterday?"

Tim sighed, "twenty-three times."

"And how many times have you died?"

Another long pause, as Tim tried to decide if he should lie or not, deciding honesty is probably best, "six hundred and forty-nine times since I figured it out. There might have been a few dozen times before I understood that I chalked up to dreams."

Alfred inhaled just barely noticeably sharper than usual, "so quite a few times." They sit in silence until Alfred says, "Tim, Master Bruce loves you dearly. Telling him about something that's a part of you will never change that. I won't tell him about this, and I'm sure Master Jason won't either, but you should consider telling him."

Tim looks down, "I'll think about it. Thanks, Alfred."

"Anytime, Master Tim. Now, I think it's time for some food, come along."

"So, Tim, can you explain how you knew about the bombs yesterday?" Dick asked as they all finished up their dinners.

He could feel their stares as he pushed around the food on his plate, "a contact gave me a heads up."

"A 'contact'?" Dick repeats, trying to dig without exactly digging. Tim didn't reply, focusing on the barely eaten food in front of him, Dick gave a sigh and gave up, but Bruce didn't.

"Who?"

"You don't need to worry about them," Tim deflects, voice monotone and quiet.

"They could be a danger to-"

"They're dead," Tim cuts him off, before standing and leaving, the dinning room silent behind him.

Alfred goes about cleaning up after Tim, putting his leftovers away for later as the rest of the table discuss the exchange.

"Must have been close with whoever it was," Dick commented, sadly.

"Or he just feels guilty for not being able to save them. Especially if Tim was the one who put them in that situation to begin with," Jason counters.

"Either way, give him space."

"No shit, Dickhead."

Bruce sighs and is about to leave when Damian pipes up, "are you aware he's Meta?"

The infliction on the word alone causes everyone to screech to a halt. Dick clears his throat, "now, Damian, being a Meta is not wrong. There's no need for that tone."

Damian gives a scoff but refrains from replying as Jason looks like he wants to be anywhere but there. Bruce huffs, "I don't see why it matters, Damian."

They all look to him in varying degrees of shock and confusion, "h-he's been lying to us, Father!"

"He'll tell us if he wants to or if he feels the need to. I trust Tim to know when keeping secrets can hurt the family."

Dick has a look of pride on his face that reflects how much Alfred is feeling, Damian looks shocked and angry, and Jason slides from shock to suspicion, "so, you _have_ known then?"

"I knew he had the possibility of manifesting a power, much like Cass did. I'm unaware of whether he truly possesses one or not."

"Woah, wait, Cass could be a Meta, too?" Jason's not surprised at how paranoid Bruce was to run tests on everyone, but he is more than a little surprised at how lenient his is with their privacy in the matter.

"Currently we don't believe she is, though, it has been brought up that her body language and emotional reading skills could be a power, we've deemed that plausible but unlikely."

Dick looks a little freaked out now, "anyone else here hiding secrets?"

Jason raises his hand and they all whip their heads to him, he gives a cheeky smile, "I'm pan."

Damian blinks, "you're a pan?"

Jason snorts, "no, Demon Brat, I'm pansexual." He takes a quick sweep of the room, happy that no one looks angry, and turns away, throwing a peace sign over his shoulder, "gotta bounce, see ya later!"

After closing the door to the dinning room, he leans back to listen to Dick explain to Damian what pansexual means and can't help a little smile. Catching eyes with Tim, Jason smiles a bit wider at him, "what'd I tell ya, Timmers? He's a paranoid fuck, but that doesn't mean he doesn't trust you."

Tim gives a small nod, a soft smile on his lips, "did Alfred tell you about it?"

Jason shook his head, "nah, but you can, whenever you're ready."

Jason was half way down the hall when Tim asked, "you up for a patrol partner tonight?"

When he hesitates for less than a second, Tim's already opened his mouth to rescind the offer so he doesn't have to be rejected, but Jason quickly cuts him off, "think you can keep up, Timmy?"

It takes a moment to process, then Tim's grinning, "I think I can manage."

Tim's starting to think the Universe™ wants his family to know about his powers. Not a week after the 'bomb party' (as it's been dubbed by the more chaotic members of the fam), an alien invasion occurred that no one noticed until they were literally landing on Earth forcing him to reset three times to put into action a successful plan. Two days after that, Ra's and the Light decided to try world domination via world annihilation that killed him four times before he could even figure out what happened and another ten times to successfully stop it. By the time the next incident came around a week later, Dick and Damian were getting suspicious that he always had a plans laid out with weaknesses and locations to events they didn't even see coming.

"At first," Damian said, once he cornered Tim after an exhausting patrol, "I assumed you were merely paranoid, like Father, but I don't believe that's the case anymore."

"It's not paranoia if it actually happens."

Damian ignored Tim's mumbled counter (_like the brat he is_) and continued to bulldoze on, "so, since it's obvious that your 'sources' are fake, is it mind reading on a global scale, seeing the future, or some other power?"

Tim sighed, long and hard, "why can't I just be good at what I do? Why does it have to be a power?" Damian tsked and opened his mouth, no doubt to say some sort of degrading words, but Tim cut him off, "you've seen my files. Everything I've alerted the group to has been because of my hacking and intelligence network."

Tim pushed past the boy and finally made his way to bed only to wake up to Jason pushing him off the couch with a happily chirped, "lunch time, Timmers!"

Tim barely blinked, too used to the disorienting sensation of his power by now, groaning out a long, "fuck." _Can he not go a month without dying?!? Just a _month_!_

Jason pauses, before pulling him up to his feet, "what's wrong, Timbo?"

"I don't know yet," he grumbles, dizzily making his way to the dinning room, a slightly concerned Jason following, drawing the attention of Dick, who looked almost confused at Jason's blatant show of emotions.

"Something wrong, guys?"

Jason gives a small sneer in his direction, heart not in it as his concern for Tim outweighed his desire to keep up the image, "fuck off, Dickhead."

Dick focused on Tim then, "you okay, Timmy?"

Tim growled, annoyed as usual after this happens, "I'm fine."

Dick immediately drops it, but looks anything but convinced. "Well, I'm g-"

"It's closed."

Dick, Jason, and the newly arrived Bruce freeze, getting flashbacks to the morning of the 'bomb party' and other recent events as Tim slides into his seat and Alfred sets his plate down.

Carefully, Bruce broaches the subject, "is something happening we should know about?"

Tim hums and tilts his head to the side as he devours his food (for some reason after resetting his appetite is at least triple his usual), "not today." 

Bruce and Dick relax slightly at this before Tim continues, "unfortunately I don't know what happens in two days, so I need to do a lot of hacking today." He finishes his plate, letting Alfred take it before grabbing his coffee mug and slipping down to the cave.

He spends the next forty-four hours at the batcomputer hacking away through every known group and government to find who had somehow killed him. Occasionally he had Oracle or Dick or Bruce to help him, Alfred, Cass, and Jason supplied them with coffee and food to keep them going.

It's Dick that finally finds it, some third-rate Russian mafia group that got their hands on a nuclear bomb and is set to go off in Metropolis, taking out Gotham and surrounding cities with it. They immediately call up Clark to search the city for said bomb as the files say it's already placed and they have less than twenty hours before it detonates.

It takes surprisingly little time for Clark to find it and bring it to the cave so they can dismantle it as Tim and Babs get working on tearing down the mafia ring and whatnot. 

Once the whole fiasco is finished, Dick rounds on Tim, "okay, I for one, would like an explanation."

Tim glances at Alfred who returns it with a supportive smile then Jason who just shrugs in a 'whatever you want' manner. Tim fiddles with his slightly stained shirt, as he thought it through, trying to suppress the panic that rose in his mind. He had four choices; tell them the truth, tell them nothing, tell them a lie, or reset. Another quick glance to Alfred told him that while he wouldn't know, he also wouldn't approve if he reset to escape this.

With a sigh, Tim straightened in his chair, prompting a surprised eyebrow raise from Bruce who assumed he would say nothing. "I had a dream," he winces at how childish that sounds, "it was vague, they're usually more detailed, they help me figure things out and avoid disasters." He couldn't look Alfred in the eye, because while it technically wasn't a lie, it also wasn't the truth and he hated the possibility of Alfred calling him out on it, however slim those chances were.

There was silence as they processed and Jason asks, "mind if we ask questions?"

Tim twitches his hand in a 'go for it' gesture and Bruce starts, "how long?"

"Since I was eight, probably longer."

"Why didn't you ever tell us?"

He glances at Bruce and everybody takes that hint as they fall silent till Dick picks up his line of questioning again.

"So, prophetic dreams?"

Tim winces, "if you want to call it that."

They don't miss that edging, Dick raises an eyebrow, "well, what do you call it?"

"Nothing, I usually ignore it."

Dick winces now, trying to find a way to say this in the nicest way possible, "Tim, that's not healthy."

Tim just shrugs, like his mental and emotional safety doesn't matter.

"What did your parents think of it?"

Swallowing thickly, Tim shrugs again, "I never told them. They..._disliked _anything that wasn't normal to begin with, I never asked their stance on.. Metas." Not a lie, technically, he never asked, but that didn't stop him from hearing their complaints on the matter over and over again.

Dick winced again, getting another reminder that not all parents were as amazing as his.

"How many of these 'dreams' have you had?"

Tim shrugs, "I get them about five or six times a month on average."

"In total," Bruce adds, not liking the vagueness of his response.

"Somewhere in the high six hundreds? I've been getting more recently, it's usually not pleasant."

"How so?"

Tim hesitates, glancing at Alfred once more just to make sure that at least one person wouldn't be disgusted with him, "sometimes I die and it hurts to feel it. Especially if I have to see it multiple times."

"You can feel in your 'dreams'?"

He nods, "it's all very vivid. I never know I'm dreaming until I wake up."

"That must be disorienting."

"And tiring," Tim adds with a shrug, "I can live through weeks before I wake up and it almost never feels like I actually got any sleep."

There are several seconds of silence before Jason says, "well, looks like you got it all under control, Timbit!"

Tim shares a look with Jason, communicating something the others couldn't decipher, and shrugs again, "it's fairly simple and I've had quite awhile to accommodate to it."

There's another long bout of silence making Tim stand up and head to his room with a parting, "if that's all, I'll be going to sleep."

They didn't try to stop him, instead choosing to discuss between themselves how to better work with Tim and make sure that he's comfortable with his power.

"Are either of you concerned with his answer about his parents?"

Jason shrugged to Dick, "not much we can do about that so late after the fact. I'm more concerned about how he's apparently felt himself _die_, multiple times."

"Yes, those are both things we should be worried about." Bruce cuts in at Jason's almost anxious look, "do we know if he's seeing a mental health professional?"

Dick shakes his head as Jason nods. They look at Jason in slight surprise, "so he is?" "How do you know?"

Jason scoffs at Dick's whiny voice, "it came up during patrol. He's aware enough to know when he needs help and smart enough to get it before it got out of hand. I thought you said you trusted him, B."

"With our safety, yes, but not his own. You'd have to be blind not to notice his clear disregard for his own life."

Jason flashes back to the night Tim tried to kill himself in a panic, he's starting to wonder if he should have told Dick or Bruce about it, but Alfred and Tim had both said it was a misunderstanding and he trusted Alfred on that point at least.

"It seems so obvious now, how did no one notice before?" Dick wondered aloud, despondent.

"Well, he's smart enough to know how to cover all his bases," Jason answers, ticking them off on his fingers. "First off, he rarely sleeps, so much of his crankiness when he wakes up gets pushed off to him not being a morning person. His reaction speed and observational ability means most of the times he answers before the question's asked or reacts prior to the action gets attributed to that. His vast collection of informants and superior hacking abilities is great cover for how he really gets his info. The fully functional plans he pulls out of his ass gets attributed to his paranoia and quick wits. And sometimes he gives us just enough info for us to do the work, make us feel involved and keep us off his track a little longer."

There's silence as they process everything they've learned tonight, "we aren't telling anybody who doesn't already know." Dick reminds them all, waiting till they both nod to continue, "we don't want to out him until he feels comfortable enough to tell people on his own."

"Dick, head to bed, we've got a full day tomorrow." Bruce cuts in, "Damian, you should already be in bed, you've got school in a few hours."

There was a muffled tsk and Jason snorts, watching a shadow move across the ceiling toward a secret passage into the house, before leaving a pouting Dick with Bruce and going to bed.


	9. Dark!Tim

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Or at least morally dubious Tim

Tim Drake never went to Bruce to become Robin, because Jason never died. Jason never died because Barbara was never paralyzed. Babs was never paralyzed because the Joker had died.

The Joker had died because Tim had killed him. Tim had killed him because he was kidnapped. Tim was kidnapped because the Joker had found him one night taking pictures of the Bats.

It was all quite...poetic. And completely justifiable in court, if anyone would even put in the effort to find out how the Joker had died beyond making sure he _was_ dead. As it was, no one asked so no one answered. Tim moved on with his life, but now he was dissatisfied with how the Bats did things.

While Tim still ventured out to take their pictures some nights, he had taken to gathering intelligence on Gotham's Crazies and anti-heros, having learned that knowledge is power and that he would rather not ever be caught unawares again. Catwoman was good for information trading, if he could find her, the late night streetwalkers and drug dealers could tell him plenty, too. He also put effort into refining his hacking with an eventual goal of creating a backdoor into the Bats Systems.

It only took half a year to create a backdoor into not only the Bat System, but also every government agency he could find _and_ Oracle's Private Systems. He had created quite the name for himself in Gotham's underworld for his information gathering skills. Catwoman had slyly offered to back him and give him the protection she could while he was just starting to gain traction, he accepted, taking the name Stray. While he was doing that, he was also creating a name for himself in the public eye as well, being hailed as a twelve year old prodigy in STEM and research fields, having already gotten a GED and was working on his third degree. Wayne Enterprises, LexCorp, Drake Industries, and a dozen other companies had taken an interest in him, wanting him for their R&D sectors and offering him high positions in their companies as soon as he turns sixteen. 

It was almost a year after the whole Joker incident, while Tim was training overseas under the guise of an internship, that his mother died in a plane crash, leaving his father in a coma. Not particularly bothered by it, having long since cut emotional ties with them, he returned to Gotham for her funeral, arrangement of his father's care taking, and to deal with DI now the the Co-CEO's were incapacitated. 

He played the distraught son, trying, and mostly succeeding, to keep it together when he spun beautiful lies about his mother at her wake. He played the genius out of his depth when he carefully edged his way into making sure his father would be getting the best care available for him. He played the lost socialite with a big family while successfully evading adoption by Bruce Flipping _Wayne_, fabricating a distant uncle he hacked his way into getting foster papers approved for. He played the prodigal child to discretely nudge DI's Board to place the company in the good hands of an entirely fake persona so he could lead DI from the shadows until the Board would approve of him.

While he was in town, he learned a few things, Jason had grown to chafe with Bruce on many issues they didn't see eye to eye on and followed Dick's footsteps, going out on his own as Red Robin. Leaving Bruce to find a new Robin to fill the void.

Instead of trying to fill it himself, like he would have prior to the Joker incident, Tim anonymously suggested to the part-time Oracle that a certain purple outfitted girl should be considered. And three months later, Robin returned to the streets of Gotham, a blonde, bubbly, girl, and Red Robin appeared with them only for big Arkham break outs.

Less than a week in Gotham and he was back overseas with Shiva to finish the last of his training before returning as the number one info broker in Gotham and finishing a fifth degree.

By the time he was fifteen, he had ten degrees, including three doctorates, a world famous alter ego, and five super villains backing and protecting him, mostly due to the blackmail Tim had on them. _And_ the Bats were still largely unaware of him.

Using his considerable influence, Tim began working on making DI a world famous brand, above and beyond WE. Blackmailing and bribing large global corporations to partner with him when he inevitably took over DI. With that all laid out, he moved on to cleaning up Gotham's streets.

He reached out to his contacts on the streets to pass along a message to Red Robin with a time and place in BatCode. It took two weeks but finally Red Robin surfaced and Tim prepared to make a deal with him. 

When Jason landed two rooftops away from their designated meeting spot thirty minutes early and crouched down to wait and watch, Tim gave it five minutes before he slipped out of the shadow he was in and sat on the edge of the roof facing away from him. It was ten more minutes before Jason even made a sound, but when he did (an almost unheard scuff of his shoe as he adjusted positions) Tim slowly looked over to him and beckoned him forward. There was a minute of pause before he swung over to stand just out of hand to hand range but close enough for throwing knives to be redundant and stayed silent.

Tim gave him a cheeky smile as he waved a hand to the edge of the roof, "have a seat, Red. I'd like to discuss a...proposal of sorts."

"I'd rather stand," Jason replied, crossing his arms.

"Fair enough," Tim smirked, flipping around smoothly so they were facing each other. "I've noticed your ever increasing distance from the Bats."

Jason snorts, "lil' late on the uptake."

"Not really, it's been years since it happened, but I wasn't yet in a position to help you like I am now."

"Help me?" Jason repeated, "you're the Cat's Stray, why would you wanna help a vigilante?"

"Many reasons, mostly because it would help me in the long run." Tim gave a one sided shrug, "look, you don't agree with the way Bats is doing things here, right? You think there's a better way, and there is. Let me help you prove it to the old Bat." 

Jason didn't reply, so Tim kept going, "we can start in Crime Alley and the areas around it. Carve out your own piece of Gotham to protect, within a year civilian casualties will drop to almost nothing. Child drug addict rates will fall, street orphans won't have to sell themselves or steal or join a gang to live. Doesn't that sound so much better? Let the Bats deal with the Crazies, we can focus on protecting the innocents, on doing what Bats overlooks as just part of being in Gotham."

When Tim could tell he wouldn't get anything more from pushing, he backed off, "take your time, think it over. I don't want to push you into doing this. When you have your answer, tell someone on the streets and it'll get back to me. I hope we meet again, Red."

With that, he leaned back and slipped off the roof, dropping about four floors before grabbing onto a window ledge and swinging across the small alley to a smaller building's roof and slipping into one of the shadows there to see what Jason would do. His first reaction is obvious, an ingrained instinct to make sure he hadn't fallen to his death, but when he spotted no body or moving shadows, he shook his head.

Tim smiled from the shadows as he watched Jason linger, thinking about what he proposed. Once Jason headed off in the direction of the safe house he was holing up in, Tim went home as well, stopping by Selina's for his usual information exchanges.

Six days pass before he gets wind of another Red Robin sighting followed quickly by a time and place to meet again. When he got to the designated roof half an hour early, Jason was already there, playing with a batarang as he waited. Tim made sure to make some noise as he approached, not wanting to startle him because the last thing he needed was a batarang to the face.

"I thought about your offer," he said in lieu of a greeting.

Tim slipped around to sit on the roof's edge facing him like last time and waited for him to continue.

"I have some questions before I decide for sure."

"Ask away."

"What's your plan?"

Tim shifts, letting his almost playful act lessen for the moment. "First, get rid of the gangs. Seize control of the munitions, explosives, and drugs. Then focus on the other crime, theft, rape, murder, trafficking. With the gangs gone, control of the streets will fall to us, making it easier to rout out and stop the smaller criminals. Then we ensure that orphanages and boarding houses _are_ preferable to living on the streets. With crime rates lowered, we can focus on making sure that children are taken care of properly."

Jason was quite for a moment, digesting his words, Tim let him think through it all in peace. "It sounds like you're trying to make your own gang," he finally says.

Tim cocks his head, "you grew up on the streets of crime alley. You should know that nothing will _stop _crime. The best you can do is control it. If that sounds like making a gang to you, then yeah, that's what I'm trying to do."

Jason falters at that and Tim continues, "from what I've seen so far, you don't seem to have the same moral dilemma as Bats does. You've probably already killed before," he says with a shrug, "living on the streets here is survival of the fittest. You wouldn't be the only Alley Kid that's killed before they were sixteen. Robin will also grow to chafe against Batman's rules and restrictions, her morals align almost perfectly with your own."

"You're the one who recommended Blondie?"

Tim nods, "she needed training before she ended up getting herself killed. By the time she leaves his cave, another Robin will be waiting, maybe even another Batgirl."

"You do that a lot?"

A shrug, "most of the kids I run across I can persuade to stop. I couldn't dissuade her. She was persistent and Catwoman was constantly complaining to me about having to save her. It was starting to annoy me so after failing to convince Catwoman to train her, I turned to Oracle."

"But why Robin? Why not Batgirl?"

"Because there's already a Batgirl, even if she is the part time Oracle, she's still Batgirl. Asking her to give it up when Robin was already empty would be rude and wrong. Besides, Batman needs a _Robin_. Without a Robin with him, to make him control himself, he'll just become another Crazy you'd have to deal with."

Jason narrowed his eyes, digesting and planning, looking Tim over for any trace of _anything. _Eventually, he nodded, "so, are we exchanging names?"

Tim shrugs, "there's no need, I already know yours."

"But I don't know yours."

"You do. You just don't know it's mine."

Jason cocks an eyebrow, "so I know you?"

Tim gives a wiry smile, "well, I'd hope so, we've only been neighbors forever."

Jason's eyes go wide as Tim continues, "it's kinda hard to hide the Batmobile from the nosy kid next door. Hell, I'm almost convinced the whole neighborhood knows that Batman lives there. For being so smart, he can do some seriously dense things."


	10. Dark!Tim part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stray! Tim and Red Hood! Jason set off on their own little adventure running the Gotham Underworld. Do they make more friends than enemies? What does Bats do? Will another BatClan member join at any point?

It's been two months since Tim and Jason struck their partnership. They'd both decided to bench their old names and take up new ones for the task, so Jason chose Red Hood and Tim took Wraith. They also changed up their uniforms, Jason took to a ruggish biker look with a red electronic HUD face mask they had collaborated on, and Tim just upgraded his goggles to red HUD lenses since his outfit was already black and easily overlooked. 

They didn't chose a name for their gang yet, at least not officially, but Tim had already spread some rumors to the gossips of the Alley and after just one raid, their names were spreading like wildfire. Red Hood and Wraith, collectively called the Crimson Devils by the people who'd seen them and lived just long enough to tell others before they were killed off.

Their duo was as close to perfect as possible, Tim being the silent assassin while Jason was the deadly distraction. Jason would boldly collect attention while Tim found and analyzed the best way to efficiently take their opponent out. And that went for both their physical battles and the verbal mind games of surrender negotiations and such.

After six months of actually hitting the streets and enacting their plan, most, if not all, of Crime Alley fell to them. They cleared out the old gangs and started implementing programs that would _actually_ help the citizens of the area live and prosper. They started their own little 'police' stations on every street. They got the people to no longer turn their heads at violence, to report crime. They got volunteers, trust-worthy people, to monitor and patrol streets for any crime, to break up fights, and protect victims. Free medic stations were set up every other street that reminded Jason quite a bit like Leslie's. Soup kitchens were set up and regulated, monitored so nothing bad was being fed to people.

Now, people may be wondering where the money to fund all this came from, right? It was simple, Tim Drake had partnered with a rather small non profit looking to help the Alley's residents get greater quality of life. One thing lead to another, Drake was appalled by the way the government and other people had just left Crime Alley to gangs and abandoned thousands of the poorest Gothamites, and soon, Drake had invested in, partnered with, and started hundreds of non profits to help the cause. He raised up enough fuss in the socialite world that not only were the ultra-rich donating, but also many upper middle and upper class citizens from all around the world, but mostly Gotham and neighboring cities.

And sure, the Crimson Devils might have been controlling, but the outlook for many of the residents were so much better than before. The Devils had taken an area the police wouldn't even go anymore and turned it into something that functions in a way that people no longer had to fear walking down the street. To gangs, they were a threat, to the government, they were largely ignored, to the people living there, they were praised and loved in a way not even Batman was in the richer districts.

And what did Bats do about it? Not much. During their last talk together before Jason moved out of the manor, he told Bruce in no uncertain terms that Crime Alley was _his_ territory and that Batman had best stay out of it. That, along with an uptake in crimes from the bigger bad's gangs through out the better parts of Gotham (that may or may not have been Tim's doing) had Batman continuously running on near empty and staying well away from the Alley, not ready to deal with what will amount to a dogfight with Jason were he to cross into his self-claimed territory.

They were a year into it, stabilizing the Alley before they moved on to the surrounding areas, getting rid of the last small crimes, giving funding to orphanages and homeless shelters to be used, in a closely monitored way, where they were sure the money was going to where it needed to be and used how it needed to be used to improve quality of life. Tim had felt something change in the dynamics of the Batman/Robin partnership and estimated that it wouldn't be long before they stopped hearing about Robin and Spoiler started hitting the streets again. And sure enough, two nights after he warned Jason, Spoiler was flying through their area, looking determined to get _somewhere_.

Hood intercepted her not far into the Alley by literally dropping down not three feet in front of the running girl. She quickly backflipped away in a style that was reminiscent of Nightwing and stood poised to attack until she saw who it was. Tension slowly bled out of her, but she was still alert as Hood put a hand on his gun and said, "I thought I told the old man I didn't want any bats here."

There was a shift where she looked like she was almost regretting coming here, but she quickly put her hand on her hip and with a voice filled with Gotham venom said, "do I look like a Bat to you?" She emphasized her point with a wave to her chest where the Bat symbol used to be.

Hood snorts, "and what makes you think I want _you_ in my Alley any more that Bats?"

"Word is, it's not just _your _Alley, Hood." She snipes back, a playful edge in her otherwise venom drenched tone.

"Oh?"

"Where's Wraith?" She asks, "I want to talk with them."

"What do you want with them that you can't get with me?" And there's a certain pull to his voice that warns that one wrong word will get her killed.

"When one had a proposition, it's only right to go to both partners, Hood."

The playfulness hasn't left her once, but it was much firmer now, she wasn't asking. Hood was smirking under his helmet and relaxed his stance to appear looser, like she wasn't threat, but she could still see the tension that belied his nonchalance. "And what's your proposition, Spoiler?"

The sudden voice from behind her would have once made her jump, had Batman not been doing the same to her for the past three years she'd been Robin. The voice was cold and reminded her of the sharpness of knives, she knew instantly that _this_ was Wraith. She didn't have much info on him, nor did she have some semblance of a prior work relationship with him, so she didn't dare throw the same amount of flippancy that she did with Jason. She slowly turned to be able to see both the Devils at the same time and almost choked when her eyes landed on Wraith.

"Stray?"

There was a small tick of his lip and _yes, that was definitely Stray. _"Hey again, Steph. Long time no see."

"The fuck! I thought you were dead! Catwoman refused to talk about you!"

"You should know better, Strays never die. Selina's still a little salty I didn't keep the name, but Mom will get over it soon, I can tell she's missing my conversations."

Hood snorted, "gossips."

Wraith ignores him, "so what's your pitch, Spoils?"

"Let me join you guys," she says without preamble.

_Right on the money, damn, was Tim good or what?_ "What's in it for us?"

"Besides my kick ass self?" Spoiler jokes, "info on Bats, any weapons I had stored up, extra fighting power."

"We have all that," Hood says with a shrug.

"You have trained man power?"

"We have no shortage of people willing to help and we can train them in anything they don't already know," Wraith answers.

"Then what _can _I do for you?"

There was a long pause as the Devils let her think trough something she could do that they couldn't do or get themselves. "Oracle." She says with more determination and steel than before, "I can get Oracle on your side."

"Hmm," Wraith hums, then smiles slightly, "two things about that; what can she do for us, and what makes you think we don't already have dear Babs on our side?"

Spoiler's eyes widen then narrow, already fed up with this run around game they got going, "look, it's a yes or no question. Will you or won't you let me join you two?"

There's another smirk from under his helmet, "yeah, Blondie, Wraith just likes to fuck with people. Com'on, we got a wanna-be gang to take down tonight, want in?"

"Hells yeah, Hood." Spoiler turns to follow Jason, only to remember Wraith, but when she looks back he's gone. Shaking her head, she races Hood to a little warehouse on the outskirts of the Alley. Wraith's already there when they get there, crouched and fiddling with some small machine in his hands.

"If you really can get Oracle in on this, it'd be nice. Less work for me to do, after all." Wraith says before they even finish landing, not even turning away from the thing he's messing with. "This is just a small gang, they're leaking in from Old Gotham. Thinking that, since we offed all the other gangs here, there's now room for them."

Jason snorts, "we going dramatic then? Use them as a lesson for the other gangs who're thinkin the same thing?"

Wraith 'hmm'd, "that'd be a little much for someone's first raid with us." He turned to Steph, "especially after so long with the Bat in your ear." He shook his head and turned back to the device that was starting to look like something. "Hood'll barge in the front doors and be the distraction. Spoiler will go in the back way after Hood, it's okay to be loud. Take out any that don't surrender. I'll do the rest."

And with that, Wraith tossed Jason the finalized device he'd been making and slipped off the roof. Jason tossed the little machine in the air a few times before pointing out the building to Spoiler and giving her time to find the back door. Then he made is way down to the big garage door that worked as it's front door and placed a mini bomb in the middle and tossed in Tim's projector warning thingie after a hole appeared. The shouting from the explosion cut off abruptly then picked right back up after a moment, Hood gave them a few more seconds before entering as well, guns in hand.

Almost half the people there were already on their knees, hands in the air, the others were either yelling at those on the floor, or scrambling for weapons. "Last warning," Hood growled, freezing quite a few people in place, "surrender or die."

A few more dropped to their knees, arms in the air, the others moved even faster towards the tables of guns and knives. Spoiler clicked her tongue as she intercepted the majority of them on their way there, knocking them out, Jason focused on the ones who stupidly decided to try attacking him barehanded. While they were drawing all the attention, Wraith had ventured around the other rooms, collecting any information they shouldn't have and knocking out people along the way until he arrived at the main room with the others.

Soon deadly throwing knives were added to the assortment of flying objects that included Hood's bullets, Spoiler's shuriken, and the thugs assortment of things they found on the ground or on their person (not limited to phones, shoes, watches, broken bricks, empty gun clips, empty guns, and what looked like someone's wig).

Anyone who hadn't surrendered at the beginning of the fight, Hood and Wraith made sure were dead, Spoiler knocked out and tied up the rest. With that over, Hood enlisted Spoiler's help in cleaning up the place so there was no evidence of them being here. Basically they picked up their thrown weapons and Wraith's hologram warning ball thing he'd given Hood. While they were doing that, Wraith was doing one last sweep of their information and copying the hard drives of the few scattered computers.

By the time the cops came, the three were long gone and a few of the unconscious thugs were awake.

"Well, that was fun!" Steph laughed when they landed on the building quite a few blocks away. "So?"

Jason glanced over to the shadows Wraith was almost swallowed by, and Steph followed his gaze. He takes a minute to decide then asks seemingly randomly, "do you want to change your name?"

Steph blinks, then smiles at his apparent acceptance of her and shrugs, "does it matter?"

"Not really, Batman's going to know it's you no matter the name or outfit change, but if you don't want the rest of the Gotham to know you 'switched sides', then I'd change it."

"I'll keep it, people hardly remember Spoiler anyway, and besides, we aren't going to be doing anything I'd be ashamed of."

Wraith nodded at her, "any alterations on your costume? Besides the upgrades I'm going to give you?"

She shrugged again, "just make sure it's purple!"

There was a small beep sound and Wraith looked at his watch before sighing, "alright, Hood, bring her to a burn base, just in case. Have her look over some of the designs I already drew up for her. I've got to get to a meeting."

There was a pause, "oh, _that_ stupid ass meeting?"

A small smirk appeared on Wraith's face at Jason's comment, "stupid it may be, but you know that's where our money comes from."

Jason scoffed and waved him off, "yeah, whatever, see in you a few hours."

Wraith slips off the roof and Hood turns to beckon Spoiler after him as he leads the way across the rooftops. Once they land at what looks like a relatively well kept apartment for the Alley, Hood leads her through a hidden door into a bunker looking space. He digs around a desk littered with half dismantled tech until he pulls out what looks like a broken tablet and something else. Fitting them together makes the tablet turn on and he hands it to her after a few seconds of scrolling through files.

Once she has it, and swiped through a few pictures, she realizes they're costume designs for _her_. Which begs the question; did they plan on having her on their side soon or was this just a huge coincidence?

"You hungry?" Jason's voice interrupts her mildly disturbing thoughts, and she looks to him to see he's taken off his helmet and was puttering around the kitchen she hadn't even noticed.

"I never turn down food, Jay." She smirks and he gives a smirk back, mentally shrugging, she continues, "how long have you two planned to bring me in?"

To his credit, he didn't flinch or look confused at her abrupt change in conversation, "you're asking because of those designs, right?" He didn't give her time to answer, not even looking at her from where he was cutting up something to cook, "Wraith made them when you were still Spoiler, before I even stopped being Robin. He's got quite a few for many people, vigilante, hero, villain, civilian, doesn't matter, if they caught his attention, he went with it. He saw your dismal costume and decided to fix it."

Steph hums, scrutinizing the amazingly well designed costume, there must have been a few dozen of them, just for her. "Who else has he done?"

"Besides us three?" Jason tilts his head, stirring something, "Batman, Catwoman, Robin, all three of them, Batgirl, Ivy, Crane, Black Canary, Nightwing, Comish Gordan, a few socialites, the Young Justice, Lady Shiva, Ra's, Wonder Woman, Supes, and some others."

Steph blinks, then blinks again, "that's a lot." They settle into silence as Jason cooks and Steph looks through the pictures. They eat in silence too, only broken when she comments on a few of the designs. That continues for nearly two hours until Wraith slips in, wearing a business suit of all things, his goggles on and a visible slump to his shoulders.

"Jayyyyy," he whines almost before he's even closed the door behind him, startling the two, though neither showed it.

"How was the meeting?"

A loud, long groan as he shed his tie and jacket, unbuttoning his top button and sleeves before slinking into the kitchen to scavenge for leftovers. "I thought last month was bad, but Peterson and Davids still won't back off on how much I'm donating to Alley projects. I've compared the amount we're donating to the amount Wayne donates to show them that even though we're making more money than WE, we're donating less than they are, but they're like a dog with a bone and they won't fucking _bury_ _it_."

He lets out a sigh before stuffing his face with the noodles Jason'd made, trying to collect himself before he continues. "I thought, with all my qualifications and background, they wouldn't let my age seriously affect their decision to follow me, but clearly I was mistaken. Even with the blackmail I have on most of them, the big business and partners I've brought in, all they see is a fucking_ orphan child_ and it's pissing me off."

"I'm pretty sure my assistant's spying on me and the blackmail only works if the whole board isn't against me because I'd have an even bigger problem on my hands if I had to replace my _whole _board when they're inevitably arrested. It'd be worldwide news, I'd be put under watch, my stock would crash. I might be CEO and have controlling interest, but I still need at least two other board members on my side."

Jason sighs in sympathy, "why don't you just kill one as an example? It works for gangs."

"Because, something like that would ruin my image. It's one thing to blackmail and bribe, it's a completely different thing to kill someone. I need the right amount of fear and reward to get their loyalty. It's like a church. I need them afraid to go against me, but not enough for them to leave. I need to give them some kind of reward for following me that they can't get on their own."

He rakes a hand though his hair, "where can I find a Fox to help me? I swear that man is a godsend. Why does WE get to have him?"

"What about his daughter? Tambourine, or something? Why don't you recruit her?"

Wraith paused in his ranting, took a breath, closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. While he was doing that, Jason didn't even try to hide his smirk at Steph who looked confused but seemed to be enjoying herself. 

"Jason." Wraith took another breath, making Jason's smirk grow, before opening his eyes and starting again, "Jay, her name is Tamara, first off. Secondly, if she's even half as smart as I'm hoping she is, she'll assume that any poaching from me or my company is because of her father's position in WE and the possibility of having her become a corporate spy, so she'll decline. If she _does_ agree, she's either not as smart as I need or she's going to spy for her father, neither of which I want."

"Give them something they want," Steph interjected, with slight amusement.

"What?"

She rolled her eyes at Wraith's lost look, "give the board something they've been wanting that you've denied with the stipulation that they let you continue to put as much money into whatever donations you want without interference or question. Then you're both happy."

"But then that sets a precedence that I'm willing to cave to their wants just to get something I want. Not only that, but it's hard enough to find something they want that won't hurt our company that I haven't already allowed, not to mention something more than one person wante-" He blinks before pulling out his phone and leaving, already talking to someone before the door even closed behind him.

"Well, now you've met Wraith," Jason easily breaks the silence that fell after the boy's abrupt departure. "Don't worry, you get used to him quick. Off duty, he's either quite and stuck in his own head, usually head deep in some design, tech, or plan, or he's talking non stop about anything and everything, mostly complaining about his job or trying to work through a problem."

They spent another half hour in comfortable silence until Wraith came back in looking slightly calmer than before. "Well, that settles that, thanks Steph." He flinted around the rooms a bit before he reemerged, still wearing his googles in sweatpants and a too large hoodie that read 'Gotham Knights Football'. Steph could have sworn she'd seen on both Dick and Jason before he left.

"I see you're looking though mom's redesigns, have you chosen the one you want?"

She was indeed looking through Catwoman's designs, quickly, she switched over to the one she'd picked for herself, one that looked like a more professionally done version of her first one, all purple with some silver and black detailing separated into a reinforced shirt, armored cloak and hood, and padded, armored pants with some reinforced purple steel toed boots and purple and black leather gloves. It also had a back face covering, belts and bandoliers for whatever she needed and a thigh holster for her many throwing stars and knives. All in all, she loved it. 

She showed him and he nodded, "do you want anything added or taken away? Any changes at all?"

"Switch the silver and greys to yellow?" She suggested, it was more of a question, but Wraith just nodded, taking the tablet from her and quickly typing something out and sending it off.

"It'll take about a week."

Steph startled as Wraith walked away, seemingly done with the topic, "don't you need my measurements?"

Wraith shook his head and Jason chuckled, "he's a bit of a stalker, Steph. He also has access to the Bat Computer, so anything Bats has, we have, including your measurements."

Steph's eyes widen, "I thought he was bluffing when he asked what Babs could do for him, but he really doesn't need her, does he?"

A week later, there are rumors flying around the Alley that the Devils got a new member, Spoiler, the Purple Devil. Soon after that, Babs reaches out, offering her expertise but not her full loyalty. They accept and Wraith starts working with their new Green Devil, even lending a hand to the Bats every once in a while. It's how they find out about Cass and quickly direct her to Batman, who takes her in and trains her in the art of _not_ killing people.

They're nearing their two year mark when it comes to their attention that Steph and Cass have been meeting for a while, hanging out, training together, acting like normal friends. And honestly, neither Tim nor Jason are bothered about it, other than the fact that they hadn't known, which they get on Steph about, Babs had also, surprisingly, not known.

"Spoiler," Tim starts out, looking at a blurry photo someone had posted online with Spoiler's purple and Robin's darker, much, much darker, red, yellow, green design.

Steph immediately tenses, bracing for a verbal fight (because it's Wraith, and he'd rather talk than fight), mouth already open to argue. She shuts it when he holds up a hand, suddenly noticing that his tone wasn't accusatory. 

"We aren't mad that you're meeting with a Bat. Remember, I was a Cat before, all we_ did_ was play with Bats. We trust you not to divulge information to people who will use it against us. We're just...upset that you didn't tell us about it. We could have helped you hide it from the other Bats." Tim explained calmly, Jason casually cleaning a gun on one of the couches. She's not too worried about him though, he wouldn't be cleaning it if he was going to shoot her.

When she didn't say anything in reply, Tim sighed, "I just wanted to remind you that I'm _not_ Batman, we're fundamental different from the Bats. Do whatever you want, but don't keep it secret here. Especially not something like this that we need to plan for, in case something happens, like another Bat finding out about it."

She nods, "it was my business so I didn't think you needed to know. But I'll tell you in the future." 

Tim nods in acknowledgment, "we try not to keep secrets here, after all, it's hard to trust your team when they're hiding things."

That rubs Steph the wrong way, "what about you?" Tim and Jason both look confused, "I don't know who you are."

Now the two look at each other, Tim tilting his head, "have I been hiding it?" They turn back to her, "you never asked so I assumed you figured it out, I haven't been actively keeping it from you or anything. I'm Tim Drake, CEO of Drake Industries, third most popular business in the world."

Steph blinks, suddenly putting all the pieces together, mentally berating herself for not noticing sooner. "Oh, wow, okay." She nods, public info about his identity coming to her, "wait! You're younger than me! How long have you known about Batman?"

"Uh, since I was like 6. I lived right next door to the Wayne Estate, and, as I've told Jay, it's hard to hide the Batmobile from the nosy kid next door."

Soon after that, around the two and a half year mark, Cass becomes Batgirl, Babs having given that up for a more active role in the Devils, providing training and tech on top of her usual info. She also takes up a few dozen subordinates, as does Steph, organizing them into what many would call a proper Mafia. 

They also get conformation on something Tim's thought was in the works for a while now, when Talia pops into Gotham and leaves shortly after. Babs' sudden busyness on the Bats side is just further proof of what Tim had already suspected. 

Damian has come into the fold.

The new Robin debuts less than a month after that, swinging around in dark colors and wielding twin katanas and a lack of care toward human life. It keeps the Bats busy and away from where Batman had started inching closer to their expanding territory.

The Devils had already claimed Crime Alley, Old Gotham, Amusement Mile, most of the area spanning towards Aporo Park, and much of Robbinsville. Basically most of Uptown Gotham was theirs. The cops of other districts only coming to the edges or if they were called. The hospitals in and around the area were well funded, the police stations within running mostly on the Devil's money and at the behest of them only. Everything was running smoothly in Uptown Gotham, and with the Devils pushing all the Crazies down to central and downtown Gotham, they're fighting over territory and keeping the Bats even busier.

By the three year mark, they've got everything stabilized and DI has become the biggest name in most anything. They've bought out Lex Corp after a long drawn out underground battle between Lex and the Devils and DI and WE teaming up to drive it's business down further reducing Luthor's income.

Jason had also brought in Roy after he had a falling out with Oliver

Jason had found Roy after he had a falling out with Oliver and taken some time off to help get him clean. Harper had then stumbled upon them and both Babs and Steph had quickly taken her in. Half a year later, Harper debuted as Bluebird, Spoiler's partner, and Roy had become Red Arrow, their Merc and Special Weapons Expert, the Red Devil.

Things were going swimmingly until Kate Kane came on scene, trying to take them out under the guise of Batwoman. Babs, who had all but retired from the Bats, informed them that she was not an official Bat and would more than likely be pulled away and trained as soon as Batman found out. Batwoman disappeared soon after that, reappearing with the Bats a few months later. Batman kept her away from Uptown, and in return, the Devils stopped expanding, content to run their not-so-little piece of Gotham.

At the five year mark, Batman dies, sending the Bats into a panic and Gotham's rouges into a crime frenzy. The only place spared is the Devils' territory, who fended off enough attacks through the years that no one dared to even try now. Tim looked over the evidence the JLA had on Bruce's death and found it lacking, so asked Babs to get the Bats back in control of the rest of Gotham and left to find evidence and clues to his currently unfounded idea.

Once he gathers the evidence he needs to convince his team, they wish him luck and he goes out to save Bruce, leaving Gotham in good hands now that the Bats are back in control of themselves and Gotham.

While he's gone, Jason picks up Duke, who soon becomes Signal, the Yellow Devil, he helps Babs, and gets his own subordinates along with Harper, who's branched out from Spoiler's side.

Ra's takes an interest in what Tim's doing soon after he leaves Gotham and sends three assassins to keep him alive and keep Ra's updated. He somehow convinces them to leave the League and join his Devils when he saves them from death by stab wound somewhere in the middle of Iraq. After that, they somehow get pulled into the middle of a war between two assassin groups, and manage to take out most of both groups without a death of their own while on the hunt for Bruce's clues.

Back in Gotham, when assassins try to kill off the Batfam, the Devils are there to save them, from a distance, of course. Luke finds out about the Bats during that and they bring him into the fold.

When Tim gets back to Gotham, three new team members and the answers to bring Bruce back in tow, he was not surprised at the new faces, both in his group and the Bats. He passes the information to Babs to convinces the Bats to try it, and soon, Bruce is back in the cowl.

A few weeks after that, Batman decided to grace the edge of Uptown with his presence. He was waiting on the roof of a building on the other side of the bridge, staring into their territory. Hood and Wraith went to greet him.

"Getting awfully close there, Old Man. What are you doing out here?" Hood says before he even touches down on a different roof, hand on his gun.

"I heard your group were the ones who found me," Batman said, no anything in his voice that Jay can find.

"Oh? And who told you that?"

"Ra's. He's mad about his assassins betraying him, but...intrigued by the young man who swayed them to his side."

Jason snorts, "course he is, what a creep. So is this a warning to watch out for Ra's or is there another reason you're out here?"

"I've officially put Uptown Gotham as your territory now. The rest of the Bats will stay out bar any extenuating circumstances."

There's a moment of silence, then Jason says, "you could just say 'thank you', Old Man, it makes you sound like less of a dick." He shrugs when Bruce turns to look at him again, "not that it would matter to me, I didn't run my ass all across the world to find you, honestly almost preferred you gone. My partner wouldn't care for your thanks anyway, they were just looking out for Gotham."

"Wraith thinks Batman is important to Gotham?" And oh, look, there's Nightwing, swinging onto the roof like he belongs there.

"This definitely doesn't look like you're gonna stay out of Uptown." Jason growls, adjusting to have both of them in his sights, both hands now on guns.

"Don't worry Jaybird! We'll keep our promise, you're running it real well too!"

Jay can see where Wraith had also moved to have a better vantage point behind Batman. _"Just let them finish their proposal,"_ came over the coms and Jason relaxed slightly because Tim had yet to read a situation wrong.

There was silence once again before Dick cleared his throat, looking pointedly at Batman. Bats didn't move and Jason got the feeling he was uncomfortable with actually saying what he was supposed to be saying to him. 

Dick rolled his eyes, but took it in stride, "we were hoping to extend an olive branch here, open communications between our groups, share information, and help if needed." 

Jason could feel a growl about to crawl out of his throat at the implication that they think Jason would need help from them, but the steady voice of Tim in his ear calmed him down enough for Dick to finish.

"Not that you're not doing wonderfully on your own! Because you are! Uptown has become the safest place in Gotham thanks to you! We just want to make sure you have help if you need it!"

There was another beat of silence before Jason snorted, "it's funny that Steph seems to be smarter than you two when it comes to this sort of thing." He let the two Bats wonder what he could be talking about for a few seconds then continued, "even she knew that when you have a business proposal, you go to both partners."

Dick shifts a bit as Batman grunts, "we presumed that your partner would be listening."

"Why would you think that? I'm a grown up, I can deal with things myself, they've got bigger things to worry about than you Bats anyway."

Dick sighs, "can you pass on the message then?"

"Nah, there's no need. They said you'd visit soon for something along these lines. And while we won't need your help, you will be needing our help pretty soon, so they're getting a hold of Oracle-"

Jason was cut off when Wraith said, "no, I've gotten a hold of her, we've talked so you can stop stalling, Hood."

Nightwing spins to look toward the shadows Wraith had hidden a mini speaker in, Batman just twitches, which in BatmanSpeak™ is the equivalent of jumping. 

"Finally, thought I'd be here all night, Wraith."

"Stop being dramatic, you were the one who volunteered to talk to them." Wraith's voice came from the other side of the roof now.

"It was either them or O, and I'd rather not be castrated by an angry woman. And you have no room to talk when you won't even show up."

"Things to do, people to see, the Bats are so far down my list when I've still got Luthor to end," his voice comes from behind Jason as he steps out from the shadows behind Batman, "but I still showed. It's important to meet new business partners face to face after all."

Batman and Nightwing both whip around to face him as he stands contently just out of the shadows.

"Wraith," Batman rumbles as Nightwing squeaks just a little.

"Batsy, you look better than I had thought after ten months lost in time."

Jason shivers along with Dick, "Wraith, I know you dealt with Joker, but that doesn't mean you have to take up his nicknames."

Dick is wide eyed at the new revelation as B tenses. Tim mutters a "Crown Prince of Crime, killed by a freaking preteen, now _that's _a joke." Then just shrugs, speaking louder, "I like Batsy, Catwoman and Harls liked it too. Besides, it's better than the shit he called me. But we're not here to talk about me, so, what do you say, Jay?"

Jason shrugs, "you're the brains."

"But you're their wayward bird, they're here for you. And maybe Spoils, though I doubt she'll want back in their pack."

"Sure, we'll work with them, so long as they stay out of our turf, I don't see why not."

"Well, there you have it boys, go talk to Oracle in a few hours and everything will be set up." Wraith slides back into the shadows and disappears, a function he worked for years to create in his suits.

Jason snorts, "asks my opinion as if he doesn't already know it." 

He turns to leave too, when Dick calls, "wait! What do you mean he 'dealt with Joker'? Did he work with him?"

Jay looks over his shoulder as he pulls out his grapple gun, "figure it out yourself."

With that, he leaves the two Bats on the roof, swinging safely back into his territory and onto the roof a few blocks away before dropping to the streets and riding his bike back to the base.

That starts the process of peace within Gotham, Batman and the Devils cracking down on crime and terrorism throughout Gotham. Nowhere is quite as peaceful as Uptown, but the rest of Gotham is surely getting there. They work with Ivy to create beautiful parks and Botanical sites. They get Two Face some actual help for his trauma induced split personality disorder. They make a deal with Penguin so he'll stop trying to run weapons or steal things. They don't do much with Catwoman, she was already slowly retiring, only taking jobs outside of Gotham. Black Mask had already been taken out back when the Devils were expanding. Clayface had shown a change in heart and the Bats had taken him in. Harley decided to join her sisters in retirement and even got them to make a little band they called 'Gotham Sirens'. Most of the others either fled Gotham or were caught and put in the new and improved prisons.

Of course, there was still crime, there would never be absolutely no crime, but it was a whole lot less chaotic and deadly than before. Gotham even rivaled Metropolis for the most peaceful city title. With that solved, the Bats were able to focus more on the JLA while the Devils, DI, and WE kept Gotham running smoothly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, I'm probably not going to be posting here for a while, but I hope you enjoyed this little continuation I was able to get done!


	11. ~AN~

So, I've realized something, I'm definately not suited for long drawn out fics like this one. I lose motivation and inspiration far too fast for that. So, my apologies, but this fic is on hold until I come up with more content. If you'd like to help, or you have some ideas you'd like to see written, but don't wanna write it yourself, drop a comment here with the main points, and I'll try and do it justice.

In the process of trying to find more inspiration for this fic, I got back into BNHA. If you like BNHA, I've started a new ficlet for that [here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24137731) if you want to check it out.

Thanks for reading, I hope to update again eventually!


	12. Bodyguard! Pru

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> By suggestion of [CatInAFedora](https://archiveofourown.org/users/CatInAFedora/pseuds/CatInAFedora)!

Let it never be said that Tamara Fox can not put up with people's bullshit. She's Tim Drake's personal assistant, the one that practically keeps the man alive and in good enough condition to keep functioning. She's dealt with assassins (so many assassins), vigilantes, businessmen, reporters, and police. She is well versed in people's bullshittery. 

But even she has her limits.

Pru beating up some two-bit, second rate, Lex Luthor wannabe, businessman in front of at least one hundred of the most rich and famous business owners this side of the continent, was pushing it just a bit. 

How did we get here, you ask? Well, it all started with a feeling, then an observation, and then a protection detail.

Tam was feeling off ever since she woke up this morning at 5am on the dot. She felt like someone was watching her, not in the way a random passerby glances over at you, not even in the way a mugger sizes you up, but in a way she was rather unaccustomed to and she didn't like it one bit.

She vaguely remembers mentioning this feeling offhandedly to Tim before they moved on. She should have known that wouldn't be the end of it.

Little over a month passes and she's been getting that feeling off and on, usually when she's at home or on her way to or from work. There's a small business gathering for the east coast's elite that Tim (and subsequently, she) is invited to later that evening. And that feeling has been digging it's way into the back of her neck since she woke up that morning. Tim doesn't seem to feel it, though he is jittery for some other reason, probably relating to his nightly activities.

They get to the gathering and the feeling is worse than ever, leaving her constantly on edge easily distracted. Tim pulls her away about two hours into it, the feeling simultaneously subsiding and sharpening. They stop in a small meeting room where Tim immediately sweeps his surroundings before pulling out his phone and showing her a picture of a man she vaguely recognizes. 

"Do you remember ever meeting him before now?"

She squints, thinking hard. He was the owner of one of the smaller well-to-do businesses in New York, not anywhere near the level of WE or LexCorp, probably not even on par with, the now far smaller, Drake Industries. He was arrogant and entitled, having inherited the business from his father. Yes, she remembers the man.

"He's been to quite a few of the same gatherings and galas as us. I vaguely remember speaking to him briefly. Why?"

Tim pulls back his phone, typing away at it as he answers, "he's been watching you since we came in, barely lets you out of his sights. You said you've been feeling like someone's watching you for a little bit now. It lines up with the times he's in town."

"Oh," she mumbles, a little taken back, she didn't think he'd remember that (but this is _Tim Drake_, of course he'd notice and remember the most random things). "Well, what are we going to do about him?"

"He's either trying to poach you, which is a frankly amusing concept, or he's stalking you. How do you feel about having a bodyguard?"

"I don't think I would mind it, as long as they don't get in the way of work."

Tim hums, before placing his phone by his ear. When the line picks up, she can faintly hear a garbled and slightly familiar, "_what do you want birdie?_"

"How do you feel about playing bodyguard for Tam?"

There was a second of pause, "_the one that was brought to the Cradle?_"

And, _oh, that's where I heard her from, she's Pru._ Tim gives an affirmative hum.

"_Sure. I'll be in Gotham in fifteen hours._"

"Should I send someone to pick you up from the airport?"

She gives a laugh that turns to static over the phones, "_nah, I'll meet you in your perch, birdie."_

"Alright, see you then."

They return in time for the ending speech, leaving quickly after that.

Pru settles into her new job quickly, easily. She'd stay awake all night, guarding the house, walk Tam to WE, then sleep in Tim's break room, waking only to follow Tam outside WE and back to her house.

At first, Tam was worried (she'd seen what this woman could do after all), but she was quickly mollified after interacting with her. Pru made it clear to her on the first day that no matter what she was doing, if Tam needed her, just ask.

The first time Tam had to leave during company hours, she was admittedly hesitant to wake the assassin up, but Tim barreled through her worries by blindly throwing a paper ball at her without even saying anything. The woman had jerked, looked around, then asked if she needed anything.

After three months, and two more run-ins with her stalker, something finally happens at one of the end-of-quarter galas Tim and consequently, Tam (and now Pru) have to attend. It was two hours in, Pru was being a good watchdog and keeping people away from her with sheer annoyance alone, Tim was off socialite-ing it up (like a sober Bruce Wayne 2.0). 

The sleazy businessman was a little more on the tipsy side than is socially acceptable at these parties (unless, of course, you're Bruce Wayne or similar) and managed to stumble over from where he had been sulking against the wall. The chatter slowly started to quite as people sensed the coming of what might just be the biggest faux pas of second-rate businessmen.

The man hitched to a stop in front of her, slurred something along the lines of 'why won't you be mine' and went to grab her arm when Pru slipped in a blocked it. The man, obviously, did not like that, growling out some sexist thing or another which Pru (surprisingly) tactfully ignored. The man's anger rose and so did his volume as he screamed about 'treating her better than that undeserving child' and so on, somehow admitting to following and stalking her before trying to make another grab at her.

Pru once again stopped him, showing incredible levels of restraint (Tim would have thought the man would already be dead). Tim had decided to pull Tam back from the chaos as she was looking far too angry to be good for Future-Tam and WE's PR team. That only seemed to piss the man off more.

He drunkenly managed to slip past Pru (she 100% let him) and grab Tam's wrist. That was as far as he got as Pru yanked him back liked he weighed less than what his rotund body would lead you to believe.

At this point, they had attracted the attention of the guards, though the man seemed to not notice. He aimed a sloppy, slow punch at Pru who blocked it easily and slammed her own fist in his face in retaliation. There was an almost musical 'crunch' in the almost dead silent ballroom, quickly followed by a scream of pain. Tam (and quite a few others) turned toward the only noise other than the man, only to find Tim noisily slurping coffee with a straw (where did he even _get_ that?).

The guards had finally reached them, two taking the now bleeding man, two more making a motion to take Pru. Tim finally stepped in, placing a hand on Pru's arm to let her know he'd handle it, and giving the men a polite smile. "What seems to be the problem, sirs?"

The two glance at each other, obviously recognizing him, before the older one says, hesitantly, "she punched a guest, protocol states that she be arrested unless they decide to not file charges."

Tim's smile grows a little sharper, "we have a room full of witnesses able to testify that she was defending her charge from drunken assault. Now, it would be a real shame if anyone here got in trouble for doing their job, wouldn't it?"

The men obviously saw the threat for what it was and quickly backed down, the party-goers turning back to their conversations now that the entertainment was gone, but anyone who bothered to keep looking saw Pru grumpily hand over a wad of bills to a smug Tim.

Tam just shook her head as Pru complained about losing, but truly, it was her own fault for betting against Tim, though, Tam _was _curious. "How did you know he was going to attack today?"

Tim shrugged, "a number of factors really. He's not a patient type, he's territorial, he's a violent drunk and his company just had a great quarter, so he was _going_ to drink tonight."

Anyone still listening felt a shiver run down their spines and immediately decided to never get on Tim's bad side, because _that_, that was terrifying.


End file.
